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India's underwhelming show in the ICC finals continued as Australia crushed Rohit Sharma's men by 209 runs in the World Test Championship (WTC) final at the Kennington Oval on Sunday (June 11).
Scott Boland ripped through India's batting line-up with his fiery spell and scripted India's defeat with back-to-back wickets of Virat Kohli (49) and Ravindra Jadeja (0) in the same over. Moments later India's only hope too was dashed with Ajinkya Rahane's (46) dismissal as the Men in Blue were reduced to 234 extended their 10-year-old ICC title drought.
India's batting fiasco
India's star-studded top four batters in Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara and Kohli when team needed them the most. Chasing a record 444, the high hopes of Indian cricket fans were hooked on Kohli (49) and Rahane's (46) shoulders who walked into the middle on Day 5 with 280 runs required to pull off the victory. But things panned out differently for India who lost seven wickets for 70 runs on the final day.
Australia were clearly the better team on all fronts while India had only themselves to blame for yet another loss in a global event. India's last ICC title came way back in 2013 and it was their second successive defeat in the WTC final, having gone down against New Zealand two years ago.
Gavaskar tears into India's batting flop show
Meanwhile, India's batting great Sunil Gavaskar tore into India's much vaunted batting line-up and lashed out at them left, right and centre for failing to deliver in the WTC final against Australia. Gavaskar said India's batting was shambles as they couldn't survive even a session on the final Day.
“The batting was shambles. It is ridiculous some of what we saw today, the shot making. India have not lasted a session with the batting line-up. I mean come-on," Gavaskar said.
Meanwhile, Australia became the first men’s team to win all major ICC titles as they have earlier clinched the ODI World Cup in 1987, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015. They also grabbed their hands on the ICC Champions Trophy in 2006 and 2009 respectively. Australia also ended their T20 World Cup title drought in 2021 when they defeated New Zealand under Aaron Finch's leadership.
On the other hand, India faltered yet again in the ICC final as they are still in a quest to win an ICC trophy after Champions Trophy in 2013.
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