India vs Australia: Rishabh Pant and Sunil Gavaskar© BCCI/Twitter
Much was expected of Rishabh Pant, with India in dire straits on the third day of the fourth Test, but the India star delivered too little. It was the same careless old way of dismissal, something which made Gavaskar start a rant that has gone viral. The third day’s MCG track is perhaps the best to bat on with green grass making way for a brownish tinge and old a Kookaburra hardly doing anything. Had Pant stuck around, there was no way he wouldn’t have scored big. With Ravindra Jadeja (17 off 51 balls) for company, Pant did start well and got a few boundaries but then the urge to play the falling lap pull over long-leg brought about his dismissal.
When Pant tried it for the first time off Scott Boland, who came round the wicket, he was hit in the naval area and seemed to be in pain. He got up but didn’t realise that Pat Cummins had placed one fielder at deep fine-leg and one at deep third man for both the conventional and reverse lap shot.
Without learning his lessons or caring about success percentage, Pant tried a similar shot but the extra bounce meant that the top edge flew to third man for a regulation catch.
“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! You’ve got two fielder there and you still go for that. You’ve missed the previous shot and look where you’ve been caught. You’ve 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 is your natural game. I am sorry that is not your natural game. That is a stupid shot. That is letting your team down badly. He should not be going in that (Indian) dressing room, he should be going into the other dressing room,” Gavaskar said on ABC Sport.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid!”
Safe to say Sunny wasn’t happy with Rishabh Pant after that shot.
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However, a great half-century by Nitish Kumar Reddy and able assistance by Washington Sundar helped India go past the score of 300 against Australia.
With PTI inputs
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