Ravi to umpire Ashes Series

Will umpire at Trent Bridge and The Oval in August this year
Inducted into the ICC Elite Panel, the first India Umpire after Venkataraghavan

Following a largely successful performance in the two tests between England and New Zealand, Madras based umpire S Ravi has been awarded the last two tests of the Ashes later this English Summer to be played at Trent Bridge and The Oval. This will be Ravi’s first Ashes series.

Almost all of the reviews against Ravi’s decisions in the just concluded series in England were negated, a big endorsement to his decision making abilities.

For Ravi who had thus far been predominantly umpiring in one-dayers and T20s, umpiring in an Ashes series will be a big leap into the next big league in the umpiring world.

This section had earlier last month written about the prospects of Ravi umpiring in the Ashes if he had a good early summer series in England (http://prtraveller.blogspot.in/2015/05/umpire-ravi-debuts-at-lords.html).

Former Elite Panel Umpire Simon Taufel, who was also the official ICC appointed mentor for Ravi a couple of years back recently spoke about the quality of the Indian umpires with a need to give them the confidence and the opportunity to perform at the highest level.

The nomination of Ravi for the last two tests of the summer is an indication that the ICC has been happy with his performance in the closely fought series in England in May that saw results in both the tests.

The Ashes nomination is a fair reward for Ravi’s performances in the early part of the summer.

prtraveller had written about Ravi just before his debut test series in 2013

http://prtraveller.blogspot.in/2013/08/s-ravi-set-for-umpiring-test-debut.html

PS: Late on Thursday, a few hours after this story was written, Ravi was also elevated to the Elite Panel, the first Indian to feature after S Venkataraghavan.