Was there enough doubt to turn down the run-out appeal against Gill?

Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler were going well, having added 62 for the second wicket and taken Gujarat Titans (GT) to a solid 149 in the 13th over against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). Just then, the partnership was ended by a run out, a dismissal that sparked debate: were the bails dislodged by the throw from short fine-leg, or by wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen's gloves? Gill was given run out by the TV umpire, but Aakash Chopra said "there was enough doubt" to turn the appeal down.

Here's what happened: Zeeshan Ansari, the legspinner, bowled a googly to Buttler, who flicked the ball behind square on the leg side, and the batters took off for a single. It didn't seem too hurried, but as Harshal Patel hurled the ball at the stumps, Gill needed to stretch to get to the crease at the striker's end. As the ball came in, Klaasen's right hand - he stood adjacent to the stumps, not behind the line of the throw - seemed to go quite close to the stumps just as the ball appeared to hit them.

"My point is simple, that hitting the stumps is not good enough these days. We've seen Jofra Archer bowling at 145 clicks, it hits the stumps, it's visible to the naked eye, you can clearly make out that it's hit the stumps, but the bails haven't come off - thank you very much. You have to establish, there has to be conclusive evidence to suggest that the bails have come off courtesy that hit, the ball hitting the stumps, because, afterwards, we also saw the hands also flicking the stumps," Chopra said on ESPNcricinfo's Time Out show.

The decision was sent to TV umpire Michael Gough, who, not certain after the initial replays, asked for one that would show the trajectory of the ball, whether it (a) changed direction as it passed the gloves, to confirm that there was a deflection, and (b) hit the stumps. The replays seemed to suggest the ball did change direction. The question was what hit the stumps first: ball or gloves?

"In my opinion, there was enough doubt. That's what I felt. There is enough doubt to suggest that it wasn't the ball," Chopra said. "Because the moment it hit the stumps, the zing [lights] didn't actually come on. Strangely enough. The hand, the glove was really close to the stumps, and it looked like, to me, that they'd hit the stumps. So what caused the disturbance in the end… it is definitely [doubtful]."

Gill was given out. It didn't affect GT much, as they still got to an above-par 224 for 6 and then stopped SRH at 186 for 6 to climb to No. 2 on the IPL 2025 points table. But Gill was visibly unhappy with the decision, and showed it as he returned to the dugout and again, after the game, when he spoke to the officials.