WTC final: Sourav Ganguly takes a jibe at India’s top-order after Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur stitched fighting partnership
After a disappointing performance from India on the first two Days of the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia, the lower-order staged a little comeback with the bat on Day 3 after they were reduced to 152/6.
After India’s top-order failed to provide a much-needed start, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, and Shardul Thakur scored fighting runs and helped India to avoid the follow-on. Rahane and Shardul stitched 109-run partnership for the seventh wicket in the morning session of Day 3 after losing KS Bharat on a score of 5.
Former Indian skipper and ex-BCCI president Sourav Ganguly lauded the duo for their brilliant partnership in challenging overseas conditions, taking a jibe at the top-order batters. Ganguly stated that Rahane and Thakur showed the top order how to score runs on this wicket. He also praised the duo for their stubborn knocks.
“They showed it to the dressing room that if you apply and have a little bit of luck then you will be able to score runs on this wicket. Credit to Rahane, he was magnificent. Shardul got battered and bruised early on but he hung in there. He has batted well in the past in England and Australia. It’s a good fightback from India. This is a message to the top order,” Sourav Ganguly said in the post-lunch show on Star Sports.
Ganguly’s comment came at the expense of a poor display of batting by the top four batsman as Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara all got good start but they failed to capitalise to score big runs as they got dismissed on a score on 15, 13, 14, and 14, respectively.
Australia, currently are in commanding position in the game as they have 296 runs lead after scoring 123/4 in second innings. Marnus Labuschagne and Cameron Green are batting on a score of 41 and 7, respectively. For India, Ravindra Jadeja picked two wickets while Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Siraj shared one wicket each.
