Cricket Memes
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Memes Take Over Twitter as South Africa Outplay India at Eden Gardens

India's worries at home tests now continue with the series against South Africa. The team started with the two-match Test series with a loss, failing to chase 30 runs. This has also started a serious meme war between the fans and the Indian team on X.

India's home Test problems continue in the South Africa series.
Image: India's home Test problems continue in the South Africa series / © ESPNcricinfo

India and South Africa squared off against each other in the first Test, which was played at Eden Gardens. And India looked so dominant in the first three innings of the game. It looked to be an easy win. They were able to bowl out the World Test Championship defending champions to just 159 and 153 runs in their innings.

But while chasing the target of 124 runs, India fell short by not just a bare margin. They fell short by 30 runs. The Proteas took the better half of the Indian team, playing with fewer spinners than the Indian side. This has also marked India’s 4th defeat in its last six Tests at home. Following this, memes have started to erupt on X.

New Culture

When Gautam Gambhir became the Head Coach of the Indian team, he was keen to make changes. In an interview, Gambhir even said that he wants to end the star culture that is prevailing in the Indian team. This eventually happened, with Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, and a lot more retiring from the game.

But it also seems that Gambhir has ended another culture in the team, which was the winning culture. India was able to win games with ease at home in the star culture, but now has to fight till the last wicket. This meme was a great troll of the Head Coach, asking what type of culture he actually wanted to end.

Aura Farming

The India and South Africa Test had already provided fans with a funny moment in South Africa’s first innings. Temba Bavuma had a close LBW call, but India didn’t take the call for it. Jasprit Bumrah was spotted calling Bavuma ‘Bauna’, which means a short, heighten individual. But the Proteas skipper decided to answer back in style.

In the second innings, he became the first and only batsman to score a half-century. Even in such tough conditions, he stood tall against all the Indian bowlers. While Bavuma was watering himself during the drinks break, the moment has been termed an Aura farming moment by the fans.

What Now?

The Indian fans have now started to normalise watching the team lose games at home. This also happened when India lost the home series against New Zealand last year, which was also a whitewash. Several fans noticed that it was Rohit Sharma who got all the blame for the whitewash at home.

But this time, things were a lot different. Rohit Sharma was not a part of the Indian team, but still, we ended up losing the game. Now, who will Gautam Gambhir blame for this loss, which the Indian team has suffered? This surely puts him in a more challenging position than the game itself.

Gill Needs to Answer This

The match between India and South Africa started well till India stepped to bat. Shubman Gill came to bat at number four and hardly played four deliveries the entire game. He suffered from a neck spasm, following which he was taken off the game, putting India one batter short.

To this, a Twitter user has created a meme, comparing Gill with other greats. Rohit Sharma played with a broken thumb, Rishabh Pant played with a broken toe, and Anil Kumble played with a broken jaw. They were termed as Men, while Gill was termed as a Girl, knowing the fact that he didn’t play the entire game due to a neck spasm.

Rana Was Missed

The quote, “You only miss the sun when it starts to snow”, was known by the Indian fans as they missed Harshit Rana in this Test. After repeatedly trolling him for being an all-format player, he was not a part of the team in the Test series against South Africa. Instead, he was sent to play for India A in the series against South Africa A.

Still, Harshit Rana went on to take 3 wickets for the team, which helped him to dominate over the Proteas A team. Fans even think that Harshit Rana could have helped the team to win this game, but he was not even a part of the line-up. Rana indeed showed some batting dominance even in the T20I series against Australia.

Bigger Problems

The Indian Head Coach, Gautam Gambhir, is now stuck with some bigger problems. Earlier, when India lost a home test against New Zealand, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli received the majority of the blame. They were not able to do well in the series, but now it should be noted that both Rohit and Virat have retired from the game.

This time, even after a year of the whitewash against New Zealand, India finds itself in the same place. Having no Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to blame puts Gautam Gambhir in a tough position. Fans have noticed someone else getting the blame for the team’s losses over the past few months, but wonder who it will be now.

Tactics Failed

Sometimes a meme is not created by using the viral photos or videos, but also with facts. And this was perfectly done by a Twitter page, describing India’s loss against South Africa in the first Test. Gautam Gambhir decided to play four spinners in this game, and they were only able to take a combined total of 10 wickets for the team.

On the other hand, South Africa has decided to play the entire game with just two spinners. And they were able to take a combined total of 12 wickets, which is 2 more than the wickets taken by Indian spinners combined. This shows that a serious blunder has been made by the coaching staff, and the team needs some changes for the next game.

Bauna Replied

South Africa was not able to do well in the majority of the game. But they were able to regain form towards the end, which helped them to secure the win. While batting in the first innings, Temba Bavuma was not able to do well. And to make things worse for him, Jasprit Bumrah also called him a Bauna in the match.

But Bavuma must have decided that he would answer with his bat. He did it by scoring a magnificent half-century in the second innings, which also played a vital role for South Africa to finish with a good target for the Indian team. You call him a Bauna, and this is how Bavuma would respond.

Gambhir’s Fact Check

In the post-match presentation, Gautam Gambhir stood up to talk about the reasons why India had lost the game. He said that the majority of the wickets in the game were taken by the pacers. So, some fans even decided to check the fact given by the Head Coach, and it turned out to be wrong.

Exposing this, a Twitter page created a meme where it said that 22 wickets were taken by the spinners and only 16 were taken by pacers. This was a great way to expose the false stats that had been given by the Indian Head Coach. Maybe he was talking about Indian pacers, or whatever, but the fact check was great.

Breaking News

India had been going through a tough phase in the Test format since the series against New Zealand. After that, India was also not able to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, following which Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were sent to play in domestic cricket. This was an order from Gautam Gambhir, to which they had complied.

But now, the questions have been on the Indian Head Coach Gautam Gambhir following the Test loss against South Africa. To make things funnier, a Twitter page tweeted breaking news for the fans. It said that Rohit and Virat have advised Gautam Gambhir to coach a domestic team before getting back to international cricket.

Wake Up

India was already one batter short in the game against South Africa. And this was their captain and star batsman, Shubman Gill. He suffered from a neck spasm in the first innings of the game and was immediately retired hurt. India didn’t feel his absence in the first innings, as they were able to take an easy lead.

But in the second innings or the chase, things got a lot hotter than ever before. India was losing wickets constantly, and there was no sign of Shubman Gill anywhere in the dressing room or the stadium. And in this meme, Gautam Gambhir is at the hospital begging Shubman Gill to wake up and save the team from the loss.

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