Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar came down heavily on Indian batsmen after they lacked patience on the sixth day of the recently-concluded World Test Championship Final against New Zealand in Southampton. He says had Indian batsmen showed a bit of steadiness the result would have been totally different.
At the end of day five, India were batting at 64/2 with Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara were overnight batsmen. Two results were visible from here – a most likely draw and a New Zealand win. A draw was being discussed because of the Indian batting lineup’s metal. However, both Kohli and Pujara got out in quick succession the next morning while other batsmen also failed to show application.
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India got out for 170 and set New Zealand 139-run target to achieve for winning the World Test Championship title. Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor played well to hunt the target down with eight wickets remaining.
Gavaskar criticized Indian batsmen for the poor show on the last day and said the result could have been different.
“In batting, the patience that is needed for Test cricket, for five days, we saw it slightly lacking. And because of that, there was a willingness to play shots and that’s what got our batsmen out. When the ball is not moving in the air or off the pitch, you can reach the pitch of the ball and play shots. But when there is movement, you need to bit a bit patient. And had we shown it, the result could have been something else,” Gavaskar said on Sports Tak.
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The final was severely affected by constant rain which made batting quite difficult on the first four days. However, Gavaskar believes the last day was ideal for batting with the sun out and India could have happily walked away with a draw.
“I’m talking about the batting on the final day. For the first four days, batting was very tough. You bring any batsman to play, and he would have had a tough time. But when on the final day, the sun was out, and even the grass did not exist. Yet everyone tried to play their shots and we lost eight wickets,” Gavaskar added.
