India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (28) literally gifted away his wicket in the first session of the fourth day of fourth Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 Test match against Australia at the Narendra Modi Stadium today.
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Resuming from his overnight score of 16*, the left-handed batter could only add another 12 runs to his personal score before playing an irresponsible shot to get out on a Sunday morning.
Jadeja’s dismissal in the first hour of the day brought an end to a 64-run partnership for the fourth wicket between him and former captain Virat Kohli. India, who were hoping for this pair to dominate the morning session, will have to rebuild now in the presence of Kohli and wicket-keeper batter Srikar Bharat.
Sunil Gavaskar furious over R Jadeja gifting wicket to Todd Murphy on Day 4
Calling the match for Star Sports Network, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar was on-air when Jadeja’s dismissal came via a substandard shot. Gavaskar, who was among the numerous people who couldn’t believe what Jadeja had done, didn’t mince his words to find faults in the shot selection.
It all happened on the last delivery of the 107th over when Jadeja aimed at hitting Australia spinner Todd Murphy over mid-on. However, with the ball hitting the inside part of his bat, the southpaw couldn’t time the ball as well as he would’ve liked leading to handing a simple catch to Usman Khawaja at mid-on.
“What is this? What has happened? Did anyone say something to him before this over? What is this shot? Virat Kohli doesn’t look very happy. Rahul Dravid [head coach] and the team management won’t be very happy,” Gavaskar said as a commentator.
Gavaskar made a reference about this particular over because Jadeja had barely managed to hit an unconvincing boundary off the first ball of the over. It was beyond everyone’s understanding as to why Jadeja had started to attack all of a sudden in this over.
Jadeja, whose dismissal was identical to that of Australia opening batter Travis Head on Day 1, had faced Gavaskar’s wrath in the third Test in Indore as well. Showing no leniency on players of late, Gavaskar had even slammed fast bowler Umesh Yadav for bowling a second-rate over with the second new ball on Thursday.
