Babar Azam on Saud Shakeel dismissal: 'We felt the ball had been grounded'

Ollie Pope's diving catch down the leg-side to dismiss Pakistan batter Saud Shakeel cost Pakistan and shouldn't have been given out, according to Pakistan captain Babar Azam. Speaking after Pakistan succumbed to a 26-run defeat in Multan that confirmed a series loss to England, Babar said it appeared as if the ball had touched the ground"The Shakeel dismissal cost us," he said. "It looked to us as if the ball had touched the ground. As a professional, you have to respect the umpire's decision, but we felt the ball had been grounded."Shakeel's dismissal came at a vital juncture in the match, with lunch approaching and Pakistan reasonably positioned to pull off their second-highest fourth-innings run-chase. Pakistan required another 64 runs to win when Shakeel - six runs away from a hundred - pulled at a short ball outside leg stump, getting a tickle on it. Pope dived to his right to snare it low off the ground, although the replays suggested significant uncertainty as to whether the catch was clean.Part of the frustration of Shakeel's dismissal was down to the manner in which the decision was reached, with Aleem Dar sending a soft signal of "out" to third umpire Joel Wilson. Wilson ended up sticking with it to confirm the dismissal.Despite discussions among the ICC Full Members around the protocols surrounding the on-field soft-signal, there has been no change to the playing conditions itself (the IPL has scrapped the soft-signal). The regulations continue to state that in the event of "inconclusive replay evidence, the on-field decision communicated at the start of the consultation process shall stand".The TV umpire does review the footage and has complete authority to make his/her decision independent of the soft signal. Increasingly the trend among match officials has been to offer clarity to any decision and one way they have agreed to do that is to avoid using language that reflects that - so words such as 'conclusive' or 'inconclusive' referring to evidence have been removed from the radio communication betw