India captain Rohit Sharma was dejected with the outcome of the World Test Championship Final 2023 as his team went down by 209 runs against Australia at The Oval on Sunday. Chasing a mammoth 445 for victory, India were bowled out for just 234 on the final day with none of the batters managing to score even a half-century in the run chase.
Rohit and Shubman Gill got India off to a decent start in the final innings for the run chase but the latter's wicket after a controversial decision from the third umpire opened the floodgates for the Aussies.
India kept losing wickets at regular intervals and couldn't manage a single big partnership which eventually led to their downfall.
Poor batting sinks Indian ship
Rohit also admitted that failures in the batting department was the main reason behind their defeat in the WTC 2023 final.
"Again we didn't apply ourselves with the bat. It was a good pitch to bat on. All five days the pitch behaved pretty well and we didn't capitalise," Rohit said after the match.
But he also praised his players for the fight they put up on the third and fourth days which kept India in the game for a while.
'We'll keep our heads high'
"We put up a show. We fought hard but congratulations to Australia. We've worked really hard for four years to make two finals. It's disappointment for us. We would like to go one better.
"But you cannot take anything away from what we've done in the two years. It's a great effort. A lot of players took part in those series. We'll keep our heads high and fight for the next championship as well," Rohit added.
Australia, after posting 469 and 270 in both innings, bowled out India for 296 and 234 to clinch their maiden WTC title and ninth ICC trophy across formats.
