Sunil Gavaskar’s reaction to Shubman Gill’s catch brought back India’s painful memories of the 2019 World Cup final defeat.
The pain of India’s heartbreaking defeat to Australia in the final of the 2023 World Cup is yet to subside completely, and Sunil Gavaskar on Thursday refreshed those memories when he brought it up while doing commentary during the 5th Test between India and England in Dharamsala. Gavaskar mentioned the forgettable night of November 19 when Shubman Gill took a sensational catch to dismiss Ben Duckett.
Shubman Gill took a splendid catch to dismiss Ben Duckett(Reuters)
Gill ran a fair distance to get underneath the ball that was mistimed by the England opener, but as everyone celebrated, including Gavaskar himself, the former captain pointed out how the catch was similar to the one taken by Travis Head to dismiss Rohit Sharma in Ahmedabad. As it turned out, Head not only took the game-changing catch after which the Indian innings went into a shell, he went on to score a century to help Australia chase down 240 and lift the 50-over World Cup for a record sixth time. The catch also looked a lot similar to Kapil Dev’s from the 1983 World Cup final, but Gavaskar chose Head as it’s clearly more recent.
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“It’s never easy to catch these. Running backwards… This is reminiscent of the Rohit Sharma dismissal in the World Cup final. He was caught in the same way by Travis Head. Look at the embrace from the teammates. They know how difficult it was. His long levers made him reach out. Terrific stuff, what a cricketer,” Gavaskar said on air.
How Gill took the catch
Gill’s catch gave his team a much-needed breakthrough as India went wicketless for almost 18 overs with Duckett and Zak Crawley giving England a good start. They had taken the total to 64 having played out an arduous first hour during which Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah produced a string of unplayable deliveries. But just as Kuldeep Yadav was introduced, things changed drastically. Duckett, trying to break free, tried to launch into the wrist-spinner but was foxed by the googly and ended up mistiming it. It was the third time that Kuldeep dismissed Duckett in this series.
Watch Gill’s catch below:
Gill, positioned cover, took off the moment the ball went in the air and kept his eyes on it till the very end. Running behind, Gill’s bucket-like hands got underneath the delivery and India drew first blood. Crawley kept going, nothing up his fourth fifty of the series but just when it looked like England would go into lunch one down, Ollie Pope stepped out to Kuldeep and was out stumped to give the left-armer his second strike.
The other spinner in the Indian team, R Ashwin – playing his 100th Test – has sprung into action as well. After an emotional felicitation by the Indian team, led by coach Rahul Dravid, Ashwin bowled six overs for 29 runs. He was a bit on the expensive side but Ashwin did manage to create a few chances.
