Former India captain turned veteran commentator Sunil Gavaskar has slammed young India wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant for getting out while playing a poor shot.
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Former India captain turned veteran commentator Sunil Gavaskar has slammed young India wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant for getting out while playing a poor shot. However, his untimely dismissal left the team in danger as he fell for a duck in the first session of Day 3 in Johannesburg.
However, Rishabh Pant came onto the pitch after the dismissal of Cheteshwar Pujara, who scored a fine fifty (58) today. The youngster was facing the in-form Kagiso Rabada, who earlier dismissed Ajinkya Rahane as well. And, after being beaten outside the off stump off his first ball, Pant couldn’t settle down in the middle as he decided to come down the track and attempt a slog but he got an edge and Kyle Verreynne did no mistake behind the stumps.
Meanwhile, Sunil Gavaskar was quite frustrated seeing the out and lashed out at him after seeing the pattern of his dismissal as well.
“You have got two new batsmen at the crease and then you saw that shot from Rishabh Pant. Forgettable, no excuses for that shot, no excuses. None of that nonsense about that being his natural game,” Gavaskar said during the live broadcast. “There is supposed to be a bit of responsibility shown. Because there are others taking the blows. There is guys like Rahane and Pujara who have taken it on their body. So you also fight it out. I tell you what, you won’t get too many kind words in the changing room.”
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However, Rishabh Pant has been going through a rough patch ever since for quite some time now. Although he scored an important 34-run knock in the first innings, he was seen struggling on the pacy, bouncy pitches of South Africa. Meanwhile, both Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have found their forms it seems as they successfully scored the fifties.
They added a 111-run partnership for the third wicket in just 140 deliveries and maintained the pressure on the Proteas successfully as well. And, Gavaskar praised the way they built the partnership. He said: “That was clever batting, clever aggression. They were not looking to hit every ball, mind you. There were some awkward deliveries they had to face.”
However, Team India were all out for 266 runs, giving South Africa a target of 240 runs to win on a challenging pitch at the Wanderers.
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