Sunil Gavaskar lashes out on Rishabh Pant’s dismissal in the first session of Day 3 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Sunil Gavaskar has criticised Rishabh Pant’s unorthodox shot, which led to his dismissal on the third morning of the MCG Test between Australia and India.
After he and Ravindra Jadeja resumed India’s reply from the overnight 164 for 5, Pant appeared fluid as he reached 28 off 37 balls. The two of them had almost completed the first hour of play. Pant tried to scoop from outside off to the leg side off Scott Boland at that point, but he gave deep third a simple catch off the leading edge.
“I think earlier on, when there had been no fielders around, that’s when he’s attempted these shots, that is understandable because you’re taking a very good chance,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports during the lunch break. “That [the shot] was supposed to go to the leg side, that went to the off side, it actually tells you maybe [there was] a little bit of bad luck involved, but terrible selection of a shot to play at that particular point with two fielders down at deep square-leg and deep point.”
In the 56th over, Pant had attempted the same hit off Boland, but he lost his balance and inside-edged it onto his body. The following ball he hit the ground again, but holed out to Nathan Lyon after connecting only marginally better. Prior to his fall, India was 191 for 5, still behind 283, but as the day went on, they gained ground because to the efforts of Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy.
Pant does use unconventional and aggressive shots to score many of his runs. Gavaskar noted that Pant ought to have been more cautious. There were two fielders waiting in the deep for just that kind of hit.
“It just appears to be that that’s the only way he thinks he’s capable of scoring runs,” Gavaskar said. “So if he’s not going to be able to score runs the orthodox way. If he’s only thinking that he’s going to go down the pitch, hammering the ball over long-on. Or just looking to play these shots, which means at the Test level you can’t always succeed. Then you have got to be prepared for the fact that he will get you some runs sometimes. If that is the case, then he cannot bat at No. 5, he’s got to bat down the order.”
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” was Gavaskar’s immediate reaction. “You’ve got two fielders there, and you still go for that, you’ve missed the previous shot. And look where you’ve been caught. You’ve been caught at deep third man. That is throwing away your wicket. Not in the situation that India was. You have to understand the situation as well, you cannot say that that’s your natural game. I’m sorry, that is not your natural game. That is a stupid shot. That is letting your team down badly!”