Australia are clearly on top in the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) final against India. After posting 469 runs in the first innings courtesy of brilliant and contrasting centuries from Travis Head (165) and Steve Smith (121), they have got off to an excellent start with the ball as well. Both of India’s openers, Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma are dismissed and India’s worst fears have come true.
While Pat Cummins caught his counterpart plumb in front of the stumps, Shubman Gill, the hero of the Indian Premier League (IPL) this season, misjudged a delivery from Scott Boland to see his stumps shattered. It was a good ball from Boland but the dismissal more had to with Gill not taking into account the movement of the red cherry.
The Orange Cap winner of IPL 2023 could score only 13 runs off 15 deliveries before getting castled. Early dismissals were a huge dent to India’s confidence who are already behind in the WTC Final and trailing by more than 400 runs in the first innings. The fans were clearly not happy with Shubman Gill who oozed class in the IPL but couldn’t play a big knock here.
“Shubman Gill gone! You are playing against a world class team, not some Bangladesh or IPL Franchise, Shikhar Dhawan would be a far better option any time,” a Twitter user said. “This is @ShubmanGill who was the Man of @IPL & man of the series, but this is #WTCFinal2023. You are not playing in home,” another fan wrote on Twitter.
Here’s how Twitter reacted to Gill’s early dismissal: