The human element everybody wanted in the game - that of the notoriously substandard umpires - took a deep dive into an abyss at Edgbaston in the first Ashes Test with as many as 15 decisions going wrong, some of them overturned by DRS.

When Joel Wilson raised his finger against Joe Root for an LBW decision, the England skipper had a big smile on his face as he signalled immediately for DRS. An inside edge so massive that UltraEdge wasn't even required, showed up in the replays. It was Wilson's ninth error in the game and by the end of the match, his Wikipedia page had been updated with the following line - "Joel Sheldon Wilson is a blind International umpire….."

Keeping Wilson able company was Aleem Dar who made six errors himself to add up to the total tally. From the very first ball of Stuart Broad's Ashes series, which saw an edge down the leg side by David Warner snapped up by the keeper, Aleem Dar made a series of forgettable errors.

Joe Root was in the thick of the action for a lot of these errors.  He successfully overturned four decisions against him while batting - two across either innings - and several more while skippering in the field.

It was pretty evident by the last day of the match that the players were keen to review every decision by the on-field umpires.

Before the start of the series, a well-known publication had published an article on how the famous 2005 Ashes series would have looked like with DRS. The result was a whopping 3-0 in favour of the Aussies (assuming they made some good DRS calls, of course) when the actual result was England winning 2-1.

This Test match at Edgbaston, though, could have swung any way if there was no DRS. The multitude of umpiring errors makes it impossible to tell if the game would have even followed a similar narrative or produced a similar result.

In an April 24 ICC meeting, the Elite Panel of Umpires was cut short with Sundaram Ravi, who was under the spotlight several times in the recent past including in the Indian T20 League and the World Cup, removed. According to an official, Ravi was at the bottom of a report card prepared for umpires over the last couple of years. Ian Gould's retirement opened up one more spot in the Elite Panel

The ICC added Joel Wilson and Michael Gough to the elite panel to replace the two. This was nearly a week before the Ashes began but Wilson is already under tremendous pressure after his horrendous umpiring in the first Test of the Ashes.

Read: Two new additions in ICC’s Elite Panel of Umpires for 2019-20

The elite panel now consists of the following umpires - Aleem Dar, Kumar Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Bruce Oxenford, Paul Reiffel, Rod Tucker, Michael Gough and Joel Wilson.

Quite a lot of them has been in the midst of controversy in the recent past. Kumar Dharmasena and Marais Erasmus made a massive erroneous call in the World Cup Final last month, awarding England an extra run for an overthrow that deflected off Ben Stokes' bat for a four. The decision ultimately cost New Zealand the World Cup and the umpires faced a lot of heat even then.

In the same country, less than a month later, two other Elite Panel umpires are under scrutiny after their errors in the Ashes. Wilson's nine overturned decisions in a match is a World record with Kumar Dharmasena and Sundaram Ravi's eight apiece being the record until this match.

Wilson is set to appear in the third Test match again while the pair of Dharmasena and Erasmus will team up again at the Oval in the final Test match of the series. 

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Lindsey Parnaby

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AustraliaEnglandThe Ashes, 2019 The Ashes