Former cricketers including Sunil Gavaskar slammed India’s batting after a disappointing show in their loss to Australia in Sunday’s World Test Championship final.Chasing 444 for victory, India resumed day five on 164-3 with star batter Virat Kohli at the crease, but crashed to 234 all out in the first session at the Oval."The batting was in shambles today. It was just ridiculous what we saw," Gavaskar told Star Sports after India’s 209-run loss. "India have not lasted a session with that batting line-up. I mean, come on!"It was India’s second successive defeat in the final of Test cricket’s ultimate prize, extending a world-title drought since they won the 2013 Champions Trophy in the one-day format.Former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar tweeted: "One technical observation I have of most Indian batters, is the keenness to get onto the front foot, to even short of length balls. These are balls Steve Smith, Kane Williamson & Joe Root play back to."Speaking on TV to India coach Rahul Dravid, former India captain Sourav Ganguly noted some ordinary batting averages posted by India’s top six.Dravid admitted his side had not met their usual high standards."They (the batsmen) will agree this was not up to their standards," the coach said. "But these are the same batters who have won two Test series in Australia, and have won Test matches in England.""We are working on it," he added. "Some of the wickets in this Test championship cycle have been quite challenging, but this was a good wicket. So the averages have fallen, but we admit that if we back our bowlers with runs they will win Tests for us."India’s performances at ICC events since 1975ICC 50-over World Cup1975 6th1979 7th1983 Champions1987 Semi-Final1992 7th1996 Semi-Final1999 6th2003 Runner’s up2007 9th2011 Champions2015 Semi-Final2019 Semi-FinalICC World Cup T202007 Champions2009 Super 8 stage2010 Super 8 stage2012 Super 8 stage2014 Runner’s up2016 Semi-Final2021 Super 12 stage2022 Semi-Final ICC Champions Trophy1998 Semi-Final2000 Runner’s up2002 Co-Champions with Sri Lanka2004 Group Stage2006 Group Stage2009 Semi-Final2013 Champions2017 Runner’s upICC World Test Championship2021 Runner’s up2023 Runner’s up
June 11, 2023 | 11:59 PM