Fifteen minutes after the close of play, Shubman Gill took to social media to question the decision that led to his dismissal on the fourth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final at The Oval.
Tweeting a front-on angle photograph of Cameron Green taking the catch down to his left at gully, Gill captioned it with two magnifying glass emojis followed by a facepalm emoji. That sentiment was echoed somewhat by Mohammed Shami later, who suggested the occasion of this final warranted more rigour in the decision-making.
Gill was on 18 as India began their pursuit of 444 when he edged Scott Boland low to Green's left. Green - who said he thought the catch was clean - celebrated immediately but Gill did not walk off immediately. The on-field umpires went up to the TV umpire Richard Kettleborough, with a new protocol in place now without giving a soft signal. The need for a soft signal in these kinds of decisions was scrapped recently by the ICC's cricket committee and this was the first occasion the protocol was required.
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.
— Shubman Gill (@ShubmanGill) June 10, 2023
"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."
The Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey, one of the players close enough to the catch, also thought the correct decision had been made. "It looked good from where I was," Carey told BBC's Test Match Special. "I thought he caught it fair and square. He was pretty happy with it, so yeah, the right decision was made."
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.
"For the avoidance of doubt, any posting by a Player or Player Support Personnel of comments on a social media platform (including, without limitation, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn) shall be deemed to be 'public' for the purposes of this offence. Consequently, a Player or Player Support Personnel may breach Article 2.7 where they criticise or make an inappropriate comment in relation to an incident occurring in an International Match or any Player, Player Support Personnel, Match Official or team participating in any International Match in any posting they make on a social media platform."