MELBOURNE: India’s day began with the tantalizing prospect of a Rishabh Pant special and ended with the batter making a mockery of expectations by attempting two outrageously fancy shots against the run of play, the second of which resulted in another cheap dismissal.
Having done all the hard work and got to 28 off 37 balls, the overnight batsman, in the company of a sedate Ravindra Jadeja, seemed to be settling down for the long haul when he decided to abruptly switch gears, certainly not the need of the hour at that stage with India looking to play out time.
Facing the dangerous Scott Boland in the 56th over of the innings, Pant first backed away very late, earning the pacer's ire. Off the third ball, he attempted the lap shot over fine leg, managing only to inside edge it onto his stomach and falling flat.
The next ball, Boland went around the wicket and bowled on the off-stump line. Pant attempted the scoop again but only managed a leading edge to Nathan Lyon at deep third-man. Two fielders had been stationed in the deep specially for that shot, and Pant had played right into Australia’s hands.
The shot led to scathing rebuke from former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, who was on live commentary.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid. You’ve got two fielders there, you’ve missed the previous shot, and you still go for that. That is throwing away your wicket. Cannot do that in the situation India is in. You cannot say that’s your natural game, that’s a stupid shot,” Gavaskar said.
“It just appears that’s the only way he thinks he’s capable of scoring runs, which means at the Test level you can’t always succeed. Then you have to be prepared for the fact that you will get some runs sometimes. If that’s the case, then he cannot bat at No. 5; he’s got to bat down the order. If there were no fielders around, then the shot is understandable,” Gavaskar said.
Pant has had a poor tour of Australia, scoring only 124 runs in 6 innings at 20.66. He can still turn it around, but time seems to be running out.
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