Indian legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar criticized Indian batters for their poor show and Ravindra Jadeja for his no-ball in the third test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy. Australia came back strongly in the third test to beat India by 9 wickets. With this win, Australia qualified for the World Test Championship (WTC) final after thumping India.
Speaking on Star Sports, Sunil Gavaskar recalled the incident during 1st innings of Ravindra Jadeja‘s no-ball to Marnus Labuschagne as the turning point of the match. Jadeja was constantly seen overstepping during the series. Gavaskar said:
“If you look back, you will say that is probably what cost India the match because after that they (Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja) stitched a partnership of 96 when India was dismissed for 109. So I think that was probably the turning point. That no ball cost India the match.”
Sunil Gavaskar continued that Indian batters didn’t play well in the match and had a poor shot selection which led to India’s downfall on this surface.
“Batters didn’t do justice to their talent. If you look at the Indian wickets, you will find it is the Indian batters who got themselves out, playing some shots anticipating that this is what the pitch is going to do,”
During the 2nd innings the likes of Shubman Gill (5), Rohit Sharma (12), Virat Kohli (13) and others failed to score big on the turning track. Despite the loss, India still leads the four-match Test series 2-1 and has already retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
You Probably Don’t Have Eight No-Balls In A Career – Harbhajan Singh Unhappy Over Ravindra Jadeja’s Bowling
Indian veteran spinner Harbhajan too expressed his disappointment over Ravindra Jadeja overstepping numerous times in the match and it is not expected from a bowler like Jadeja who is known for accuracy. The 42-year-old pointed out that Labuschagne’s dismissal of Jadeja for a duck would have put a lot of pressure on Australia, but no-ball changed the match situation. Speaking on Star Sports Harbhajan said,
“You probably don’t have eight no-balls in a career. This is not expected from a bowler like Ravindra Jadeja and it becomes a bigger cause for concern if you get a wicket on that. As Sunny bhai said, Labuschagne would have been dismissed for a duck and because of that a commotion would have been created in that dressing room, that you are 10/2, which means if you had picked up two more wickets at that stage, it would have been 25/4,” Harbhajan added.
India also lost two reviews inside 5 overs courtesy of Jadeja and Khawaja and Labuschagne put a brilliant partnership of 96 runs in the 1st innings, which proved costly for India in the third test.