Crawley was given lbw after being rapped on the pads by Jasprit Bumrah just before tea on day four of the third Test and a review stayed with the umpire’s decision, leaving England 18 for two chasing 557.

But Stokes argued the ball-tracking image — which predicts what Bumrah’s delivery would have done had it not struck Crawley — was shown to be missing, not clipping, leg stump.

Stokes and Brendon McCullum took up their grievance with match referee Jeff Crowe at the conclusion of England’s 434-run defeat and were informed the decision was correct but the projection was incorrect.

While making clear the incident was not to blame for England going 2-1 down in the series, Stokes has called for more a clear cut implementation of the decision review system.

“I think when people [who] are in charge of it say something has gone wrong that is enough in itself,” Stokes told talkSPORT.

“You just want a level playing field. The umpires have an incredibly hard job as it is, especially in India when the ball is spinning.

“My personal opinion is if the ball is hitting the stumps, it is hitting the stumps. They should take away umpire’s call, if I’m being perfectly honest.”

This is the second successive match in which Crawley has been dismissed in controversial circumstances after DRS surprisingly overturned the on-field “not out” verdict in Visakhapatnam two weeks ago.

“We just wanted some clarity around Zak’s DRS when the images came back,” Stokes told reporters.

“The ball is quite clearly missing the stump on the replay. So when it gets given umpire’s call and the ball’s not actually hitting the stumps, we were a bit bemused.

“I don’t want to get too much into it because it sounds like we are moaning and saying that is why we lost the Test match.”

England were chastened as never before in the Bazball era, all out for a meek 122 to collapse to their heaviest Test defeat in terms of runs since the second world war.

Yashasvi Jaiswal followed up his 209 in Visakhapatnam last time out with 214 not out in Rajkot as India became the first side to declare against England under the axis of Stokes and McCullum.