India vs Australia: Rishabh Pant and Sunil Gavaskar© X/Twitter
India’s start to the third day of the fourth Test against Australia in Melbourne was not promising at all as the Rohit Sharma-led side lost Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja in the first session itself. Being the last specialist batter left after India had gone five down on Day 2, all eyes were on Pant to deliver a memorable knock. But he could score only 28 off 37 balls. He did get a few boundaries and had lucky escapes, before falling to Scott Boland after attempting a lap shot and getting caught by Nathan Lyon.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar was furious with Pant’s shot selection with India in dire straits.
“That is a terrible shot selection especially with the fielders placed where they were. He seems to have two ways of scoring either by hammering the ball over long on or looking to play these shots. Which means, at the Test level you can’t always score consistently. If he wants to bat this way, he can’t bat at no. 5 but lmaybe ower down the order. That means that he will score some runs here and there,” Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
“You see some of his fours there were edges through the slips. His 50 plus conversion rate is just 19 per cent? Is that good enough for a no. 5?”
Talking about the proceeding on Day 3 before Lunch, India lost the overnight pair of Rishabh Pant and Ravidra Jadeja before reaching 244 for seven. India, who started the day on 164 for five and 310 runs in arrears, reduced the deficit to 230.
Nitish Reddy and Washington Sundar were batting on 40 and 5 respectively when lunch break was called. Pant made 28 before giving away his wicket to Scott Boland, while Jadeja was trapped lbw for 1.
With PTI inputs
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