'Elite umpiring,' Twitterati heap praise on umpire Nitin Menon after brilliant decisions on Day 2

While Team India has dominated the England side in the ongoing four-match Test series, another Indian outside the playing squad, who has been one of the stars of the series, is umpire Nitin Menon. The 36-year old umpire started trending on the second day of the fourth Test after some outstanding calls during India's batting innings.

The first instance of Menon's brilliance was on display when he gave India's No 3 Cheteshwar Pujara out when he was struck on the pads. Pujara, however, thought that the ball hit his bat first then the pad. But, the umpire was correct in his judgement as the ball did hit the pads first and he was plumb in front.

In the second decision, Menon gave a tough call on Rohit Sharma’s dismissal, which returned as the umpire's call on the replays.

Menon was lauded by the fans, commentators and many former cricketers alike not just for his brilliance on the field on Friday, but throughout the series.

Here are some of the reactions:

Like batsmen & bowlers, umpires at the highest level too need to have a presence in the middle. And Nitin Menon certainly has that in spades, from the conviction in his decisions to the way he stands his ground when things get a little frosty in the middle. Elite umpire #IndvEng

— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) March 5, 2021

Nitin Menon is a damn good umpire. Our umpires get a lot of flak....some totally unwarranted too...but here’s a guy who’s right up there with the best in the world. Let’s acknowledge and appreciate that #IndvEng

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) March 5, 2021

Nitin Menon has been the standout performer in this Test match so far.

— Abhishek Mukherjee (@SachinAzharCT) (@ovshake42) March 5, 2021

Brilliant from Nitin Menon. Give credit to the young man for the kind of decisions. Top umpire.

— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) March 5, 2021

Don’t want to put the ‘analyst’s’ curse on him, but Nitin Menon is having a brilliant series as umpire. Great news for Indian cricket. Have always felt India needs to produce many world class umpires along with world class cricketers. #INDvENG

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) March 5, 2021

The three stars of the day were involved in one dismissal: Rohit, Stokes and Nitin Menon.

— Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee) March 5, 2021

Nitin Menon masterclass this series is not being talked about enough. These are the most challenging surfaces for the umpires as well. The harder it's for the batsman it gets harder for the umps.

— Prashanth (@ps_it_is) March 5, 2021

Great work Nitin Menon. Spotted the bat pad and the pad bat in the same over accurately Well done. #IndvsEng

— RK (@RK_sports) March 5, 2021

Nitin Menon. Tight call, but a very good decision again.

— Venkata Krishna B (@venkatatweets) March 5, 2021

Just another top decision. Not easy to give that decision. But well spotted by Nitin Menon. One of the top umpires in the world

— Sarang Bhalerao (@bhaleraosarang) March 5, 2021