“Ask Kohli what shot he played” - Sunil Gavaskar slams star batter for 'ordinary shot' on Day 5 of WTC final
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar hit out at senior batter Virat Kohli for playing an ordinary shot and losing his wicket on Day 5 of the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia on Sunday.
Kohli was India’s big hope going into the last day of the WTC final. He was batting on 44 not out overnight and even though India were chasing a mammoth 444 for a record win, there was hope as long as he was out in the middle.
The former India captain, though, was dismissed on 49 in disappointing fashion. The right-handed batter flashed hard at a wide delivery outside off stump from Scott Boland and ended up being caught at second slip. Ravindra Jadeja (0) was also caught behind in the same over as India slipped to 179/5.
The wickets kept crumbling and the batting side were all-out for 234, going down by 209 runs in yet another ICC final.
Reacting to the defeat, a visibly upset Gavaskar questioned Kohli’s choice of stroke and told Star Sports:
“It was a bad shot. It was an ordinary shot. You should ask Kohli what shot he played. That was a shot outside the off stump. We talk so much about the fact that when you are going to win a match, you need a long innings. You need a century-plus innings to win that. How do you get to a century-plus innings if you are going to play a shot which is so far outside the off stump?
Set a target of 444, India resumed their second innings on 164/3 but lost all their remaining seven wickets in the first session on Sunday to succumb to a disappointing defeat.
“He needed one run to get to a half-century” - Gavaskar on Kohli’s dismissal
While analyzing Kohli’s wicket, Gavaskar opined that he perhaps went for an ambitious drive because he wanted to get that one run to complete his half-century.
Urging batters to stop looking at the scoreboard, the cricket legend stated:
“Pretty ordinary shot [by Kohli] outside the off stump. He had been leaving till then. He flashes at one outside the off stump. May be he was conscious of the fact that he needed one run to get to a half-century. A lot of time it happens. You are nearing a milestone. It happened to Jadeja I think. He played at a delivery he shouldn’t have when he was 48 [in the first nnings].
“Today, Ajinkya Rahane, on 46, [was] looking to play a shot he hadn’t played all this while. Suddenly, why do you play that shot? Because you are aware of that landmark. I think that is the reason it’s always good, at least at the Test level, not to be aware of how much you are batting on.”
While Kohli was out for 49, Rahane perished for 46, also playing a loose stroke outside off stump to be caught behind off Mitchell Starc’s bowling.