Usman Khawaja criticizes the ICC for the Ashes 2023 after Australia was docked 10 WTC points for a slow overrate

Usman Khawaja, the opening batsman for Australia, expressed his ire on social media at the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) decision to dock the team 10 World Test Championship (WTC) points for the fourth Ashes Test’s poor over-rate.

Rain on the last two days of the Manchester Test prevented Australia from ever having a chance to bowl in the second innings, Khawaja said. In the first innings, the visitors bowled 107.4 overs but came up 10 overs short.

“Due to two days of rain in Manchester, we didn’t even get a chance to bowl in the second innings, but the @ICC is still fining us and docking us 10 WTC points for sluggish over rates! That makes a lot of sense,” tweeted Khawaja.

After the series ended in a 2-2 draw, both England and Australia suffered a serious blow when the ICC revealed in an official announcement that both teams had lost WTC points for sustaining a sluggish over-rate.

The ICC said in the announcement that “under the revised regulations, they were fined five percent of their match fee and one WTC point for every over-short.”

It was made clear that the 10 points were deducted from Pat Cummins’ team during the fourth Test at Manchester, which finished in a tie with the last two days of play being canceled due to rain.

England, who was cited as having fallen behind in the over rate in almost all of the games, was docked 19 points.

Khawaja, who concluded the lengthy series with the most runs scored, was not pleased with the decision of the regulatory board.

Due to weather delays on Day Four of the Manchester Test, Australian bowlers were unable to bowl for a second time.

Rain prevented England from bowling a single ball on the last day, leading the game to be tied. England had gained a first-innings lead of 275 runs and had reduced Australia to 214/5 in the second innings.