The Day 4 of the recently-concluded World Test Championship (WTC) final saw a controversial decision by the third umpire. Indian opener Shubman Gill was batting well before Scott Boland forced an outside edge off his bat that was caught by Cameron Green who was standing at the gully. The on-field umpires referred it upstairs and third umpire Richard Kettleborough took his time and gave him out despite the ball touching the ground from various angles.
The controversial dismissal sparked a major outrage on social media as fans, former cricketers and Gill himself were left distraught by the poor piece of umpiring. After Day 4’s play, Gill shared a screenshot of Green holding the ball touching the ground between his two fielders. He did not write anything but used magnifying glass emojis in the tweet.
Former Australia captain and legendary batter, Ricky Ponting criticised Gill for targeting the umpire on social media. Ponting said that there is every chance of Gill being heavily penalised for his action.
"Something is definitely going to come of that. There will be some sort of fine, or maybe even a suspension," said Ponting on Channel 7
"That is a direct crack at the umpire for the decision that they made. You can't do that. The whole world was going to do that for him … he didn't need to say a word," he added.
Former Australia cricketer and coach, Justin Langer said that Gill needs to be more responsible and shouldn't indulge in social media shenanigans.
"One of the challenges now of a modern-day cricketer is there's so much social media," said Langer.
"The Gill tweet I think is a bit irresponsible, shows some inexperience.This is the world we live in with social media," he added.
Meanwhile, India's hopes of winning another ICC trophy came to a screeching halt after Australia thumped Rohit Sharma & Co. in the 2023 WTC final at the Oval on June 11 (Sunday). India ended up losing the summit clash by a huge margin of 209 runs. As a result, the wait for another ICC title elongated further for India.
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