WTC Final: Furious Sunil Gavaskar comments on Virat Kohli’s mode of dismissal in second innings

Chasing the fifth-stump line has been Virat Kohli’s weakness, especially in England, and Australia pounced on this and got rewarded. Though his dismissal in the first innings had more to do with the ball bouncing a bit off the pitch, Boland’s clever tactics on day five resulted in Australia breaking India’s backbone early on.

Scott Boland provided Australia with an early breakthrough, dismissing Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja in space of three balls. That blow dented India’s chances of staying alive in the game. 

Furious over Kohli repeatedly making the same mistake, Gavaskar lashed out at the former India captain over his mode of dismissal in the second innings. After India lost the one-off match by 209 runs, Gavaskar said Kohli should have left that ball like he was doing earlier, but instead, he went for the shot and then paid the price for it. Gavaskar added maybe Kohli did so because he wanted to get to his fifty as he was batting on 49.

“Yes, pretty ordinary shot, outside the off-stump. He had been leaving till then. But then he flashes at one, maybe he was conscious of the fact that he needed one run to get a half-century. Happened to Jadeja I think, he played a delivery he shouldn’t have in the first innings,” Gavaskar said.

When asked about his opinion on Kohli’s short selection that led to the fall of wickets in the cluster, the former India legend said instead of asking him, Kohli should be answerable for that.

“It was a bad shot. You’ll ask me how he did that. I think you should have asked Kohli what shot he played. That was a shot outside the off-stump. If you are to win the match, you need long innings, how do you get to a century if you are going to play a shot for a delivery that was so wide outside the off-stump,” he added.

India’s poor run in ICC Final continues

Though India captain Rohit Sharma mentioned that bowling led the team down following a decent start on day one, the consensus state it was batting that didn’t help the cause.

India’s top four failed in the first innings, and even in the second innings, India got reduced to 93 for three at one stage. On day five, India lost seven wickets in the first session as Australia won the match by 209 runs and lifted the World Test Championship trophy.