Batting Was In A Shambles, Ask Kohli What Shot He Played: Gavaskar Lambasts India After WTC Final Defeat

Sunil Gavaskar was among the first ones to question the Indian batting on the final day of the WTC final.

Steven Smith of Australia takes the catch to dismiss Virat Kohli of India during day five of the ICC World Test Championship Final between Australia and India at The Oval on June 11, 2023 in London, England.

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Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar minced no words in criticism of Team India batters as the Men in Blue succumbed to a defeat to Australia in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final at the Oval in London on Sunday (June 11). While India still had an outside chance of winning the match when the play ended on Day 4 with India needing 280 more runs to win and Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane unbeaten and looking in good touch and 7 wickets still in the bag. However, after a dramatic Indian collapse saw the Men in Blue lose all their remaining 7 wickets inside the first session on Day 5.

Gavaskar was among the first ones to question the Indian batting on the final day of the match. He was even not pleased with the way Kohli got out to a widish ball which he edged to the slips where Steve Smith grabbed a specactuclar catch. Gavaskar felt that someone of the stature of Kohli needed to play a longer innings but with the kind of he played, it wasn't possible to play a marathon knock as India looked to chase a mammoth 444.

"The batting was in shambles today, it was just ridiculous what we saw today, the shot-making. The shots yesterday from Pujara, you would never see such a shot from someone like him. Maybe somebody would have gone to him and told him 'strike rate, strike rate'. So he was looking to do the strike rate business," Gavaskar told Star Sports.



"Today, some of the shots you played, how can you expect to win? 8 wickets and you have not lasted a session, come on," he added.

He then talked about the Kohli dismissal in particular. "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 1 run to get a half-century. Happened to Jadeja I think, he played a delivery he shouldn't have in the first innings. Today, Ajinkya Rahane 46, he hadn't played that shot. Suddenly why do you play that shot? I think in Test cricket, you should not be aware how much you are batting on. I know different batters have different approaches," he said.

"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 further said.

This was India's second straight World Test Championship final defeat after their loss to New Zealand in the final of the 2019-21 cycle. Meanwhile, Australia became the first team to bag all world titles- the ODI World Cup, the T20 World Cup, Champions Trophy and now the WTC.