"County ka Bradman" - Cheteshwar Pujara gets brutally trolled for getting out cheaply in WTC 2023 final vs Australia

Veteran Indian batter Cheteshwar Pujara endured a batting failure against Australia on Day 2 of the 2021-23 ICC World Test Championship final at The Oval on Thursday, June 8.

While Pujara has been one of India's top performers in red-ball cricket over the last few years, he couldn't get going in the summit clash. The right-handed batter contributed just 14 runs before falling to Cameron Green in the first innings.

He perished while trying to leave one outside the off stump. However, it proved to be a misjudgement, as the ball ended up crashing onto the stumps.

Following the dismissal, a number of fans took to social media, expressing their displeasure over Pujara's performance. Here are some of the best reactions on Twitter:

Notably, Pujara had shown tremendous form in the County Championship (Division Two) in England prior to the WTC 2023 final. The 35-year-old mustered 545 runs in eight innings at an average of 68.12.

He was expected to score big in the all-important fixture, given that he had been playing in similar conditions for the past few months.

WTC 2023 final: India's top order fails to impress

The onus was on the Indian batters to help the side power their way back into the contest after Australia posted a mammoth 469-run total in the first innings.

However, India's top-order batters failed to deliver. Skipper Rohit Sharma was the first one to depart. The opening batter fell to his opposite number, Pat Cummins, in the sixth over of the innings.

While Sharma scored just 15 runs, his partner Shubman Gill couldn't translate his red-hot IPL form into Test cricket. The talented youngster managed 13 runs before being dismissed by Scott Boland.

Virat Kohli also wasn't able to score substantially, getting out to Mitchell Starc for 14. Ajinkya Rahane and Ravindra Jadeja stitched an important 71-run stand to keep India alive in the contest. At the end of Day 2, India are at 151/5 and still trail by 318 runs.

Australia seem to be in a commanding position and India are in desperate need of a miraculous turnaround at this juncture.

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Aditya writes news, features, listicles, and exclusive pieces at Sportskeeda as a cricket journalist. After completing his MBA in Sports Management from Symbiosis, he started his professional journey and has a total work experience of 4 years, which included a stint at Republic World. Impressively, he has also done exclusive on-site coverage of two T20 World Cups (2021, 2022), the 2023 ODI World Cup, and 5 editions of IPL, and boasts a total readership of close to 13 million at Sportskeeda. He has also played cricket professionally at the AIU Zonal level for Ahmedabad district.

Aditya admires Virat Kohli’s exemplary discipline, dedication, and hard work. Kohli’s ‘Shot of the Century’ against Haris Rauf is a moment that left a lasting impact on him, ultimately teaching him a valuable life lesson that self-belief will always bear fruit. His favorite teams are the Indian Cricket Team and the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Aditya believes in sourcing information only from trusted sources rather than any random social media posts on the story and being neutral and honest are his reporting strengths. When not writing, he enjoys playing snooker and pickleball with his friends, and he is also a self-proclaimed coffee aficionado.

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