Sunil Gavaskar slams Indian top-order’s soft dismissals in BGT 2024-25 3rd Test

Legendary Sunil Gavaskar criticized India’s top order after soft dismissals in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Test against Australia at the Gabba, Brisbane. Gavaskar reckons India’s top order of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, and Virat Kohli got out to balls, which were not wicket-taking, and the trio gifted their wickets to the opposition rather than Australian bowlers picking up these scalps.

Jaiswal was dismissed on the second ball of the innings when he could not keep the ball down and was caught by Mitchell Marsh at square leg. Shubman Gill was caught brilliantly at gully by Marsh when the right-hander could only manage an outside edge while fishing at a wide delivery.

Virat Kohli was dismissed after scoring only three runs as Josh Hazlewood nicked him off when he was trying to chase the seventh stump delivery. 

Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports, “Look at how Jaiswal threw away his wicket. When you have such a tough challenge ahead of you, you need to be patient and refrain from playing such shots. You cannot score 445 in half an hour, or even 245 runs – required to avoid the follow-on – in that time period. Shubman Gill chased a ball outside off, and so did Virat Kohli, which was unnecessary. So, there was no role of the pitch. They just played poor shots.”

Gavaskar was disappointed with the way Virat Kohli was once again dismissed while trying to play a wide delivery.

“If it was on the fourth stump I could understand. This was wide, on the seventh, eighth stump, you could say. There’s no need to play that. He’d be very, very disappointed, he’d be very upset with that. Even before Rishabh Pant faced a ball, the rain started to come down and the covers have come on. If Kohli had shown a bit of patience he could be not out with KL Rahul,” said Gavaskar on Channel 7.

India also lost the wicket of Rishabh Pant as Pat Cummins got the big wicket. The visitors are struggling at 48-4 after Australia posted 445 runs in the first innings.