After viewing a number of replays from different angles and zooming in, Kettleborough gave the decision as out, much to the visible disappointment of both Gill and his partner, captain Rohit Sharma, as well as the thousands of Indian fans at the ground. The entire process took less than three minutes.
“Yes, definitely, more time could have been taken [to verify if it was a clean catch] because it is a World Test Championship final and not just a normal match,” Shami said later. “You could have checked more and zoomed in more. But it’s okay, it’s part of the game.” That was a sentiment – that it is part of the game – that Shami would repeat later.
It was Green’s second outstanding grab of the Test, after the spectacular one he took stretching to his right at gully to dismiss Ajinkya Rahane in the first innings, though he did also drop a far simpler chance earlier in the game. “At the time I definitely thought I caught it,” Green said of the Gill catch. “I think in the heat of the moment I thought it was clean. It was left up to the third umpire and he agreed.”
Green was the recipient of boos from a sizeable and vociferous crowd of India supporters through the rest of the day, as well as chants of “cheat” each time he was involved with the action. It didn’t, however, seem to faze him. “Obviously, the Indian crowd are so passionate and obviously one of their favourite guys Shubman Gill got out and I think that’s what they were all kind of looking forward to watching, so it is what it is and we move on,” Green said.
Only time will tell whether Gill faces any consequences for his tweet. Clause 2.7 of the ICC’s code of conduct is clear that social media posts come within the jurisdiction of what constitutes a breach of the code.