WTC Final: Shubman Gill will learn but Pujara should be disappointed, says Ravi Shastri after similar dismissals

Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri feels Shubman Gill will learn with experience but Cheteshwar Pujara should be disappointed with his dismissal in the first innings of the World Test Championship final against Australia at the Oval.

Both Gill (13) and Pujara (14) were cleaned up by Scott Boland and Cameron Green respectively when they decided to leave the ball but it castled into the stumps. Both the right-handers failed to gauge the line and length of the ball, which jagged back into the stumps.

Meanwhile, both Gill and Pujara have been in red-hot form in the recent past and they were big wickets for Australia. While Gill amassed 890 runs in 17 IPL 2023 matches for Gujarat Titans, Pujara scored a total of 545 runs in eight innings while playing for Sussex in County Championship Division Two. But both of them could not continue their rich form in the first innings of the WTC Final.

“Shubman Gill will learn, but Cheteshwar Pujara should be disappointed by that dismissal,” Shastri said on Star Sports.

Shastri added that both Gill and Pujara didn’t take their front foot towards the ball and thus they misjudged the line completely.

Furthermore, Rohit Sharma (15) and Virat Kohli (14) were also dismissed cheaply to leave India on the mat. Ravindra Jadeja scored a decent knock of 48 runs before he was dismissed by Nathan Lyon.

At stumps on Day 2, India found themselves struggling at 151-5 and they are still in arrears by 318 runs after Australia posted a huge score of 469 runs, following centuries from Travis Head (163) and Steve Smith (121).

Ajinkya Rahane and KS Bharat are batting unbeaten on 29 and 5 respectively for the Indian team and they are going to have their work cut out. On the other hand, the Australian bowlers were right on the money and bowled in the right areas to reap rewards.