India is facing Australia in the final of the ICC World Test Championship 2023 these days at the Oval in London. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and invited Australia to bat first, after which, riding on Travis Head's 163 and Steve Smith's 121, the Baggy Greens posted a total of 469 runs on the board. In reply to Australia's big total, India finished the second day's play at 151 for 5, and they are still short of Australia's first innings total by 318 runs. For India, none of the top-order batters was able to play a big knock, and the likes of Rohit, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Virat Kohli got out for 15, 13, 14, and 14 runs, respectively.
While Rohit was trapped in front of the wickets by his Australian counterpart Pat Cummins, Virat was sent back to the dugout by Mitchell Starc after a short-pitched delivery kissed the edge of his bat and travelled to the fielder at the slips. Whereas the likes of Gill and Pujara were bowled out after both of them misjudged the ball.
Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri took note of Gill and Pujara's dismissals and said that it was very disappointing to see an experienced batter like Pujara misjudging the ball and losing his wicket.
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"That is leaving it poorly because the front foot has just gone across. It should be going towards the ball; he was looking to play it and then decided whether he should leave it. You see, the way he is leaving it, the off stump is exposed. The front foot is still on the middle stump when it's actually going towards the off stump. Watch that front foot. It should be further across and towards the ball. He thought it was outside the off stump. It was an error in judgement," Shastri said on air.
"We talk about leaving the ball in England, and we always talk about knowing where your off stump is. This is not knowing where your off stump is. See, Shubman Gill being a little lazy with his footwork. He will learn; he is still young, but Pujara will be very disappointed to see that. It should have been a little further towards the ball and across the line of the ball. That's why they keep telling you-know where your off stump is," he added.
After losing the top four batters for just 71 runs in 18.2 overs, India staged a mini-comeback when world No. 1 Test all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja added 71 runs for the fifth wicket with Ajinkya Rahane and helped India reach a total of 150+ by the end of the day's play.