Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar said that wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant’s valuable half-century were “impactful runs” in helping his team gain a sizeable lead over Australia at the end of the day two of fifth Test and also for playing some fine shots throughout his knock “in the front of the wicket”. Pant finally scored a half-century, getting his fifty in just 30 balls during day two of the Test match at Sydney. The half-century came after a frustrating wait to convert his fine starts into something more meaningful that lasted four Test matches. However, he lost his wicket to Aussie skipper Pat Cummins and India ended at 141/6, with a lead of 145 runs.
Speaking on Star Sports, Gavaskar said about Rishabh’s knock, “These are quite impactful runs, and he is the reason India has scored these runs because he has scored half of those runs. But the difference between the shot that he played at Melbourne versus the shot that he has played here, the difference is that the shots that he played today were in front of the wickets, he did play a shot towards the square-leg, he capitalised on Mitchell Starc’s angle and flicked it on the square-leg. And the strength that he possesses of playing down the ground and hitting big sixes in those regions, he capitalised on it. He tried to scoop the ball once and was not successful, he also tried to reverse scoop then too he was not successful and then he planned to play straight and he was successful in doing so. That is his normal game.”
During the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Pant has not been at his absolute best but still made 255 runs in five matches and nine innings at an average of 28.33, and a strike rate of 59.02, with one half-century. He has been unable to convert the most of his starts during the series into big knocks. He is the sixth-highest run-getter in the series.
Gavaskar also slammed other India batters, particularly Shubman Gill and KL Rahul for their bad shot selection and for not sticking to their normal game.
“Whereas our other batters did not play their normal game, stepping out and playing is not Shubman Gill’s normal game, it might be his normal game when it comes to T20 but not in Tests, the way Rahul played that shot was not his normal game. So, I think they had thought that we cannot prevail for long on this pitch and we’ll somehow bat it through but if it is not your normal game then there are quitea few chances that you might be successful,” he concluded.
Coming to the match, India won the toss and elected to bat first. India was off to a disappointing start yet again as the top order threw away their wickets, especially Virat Kohli (17) who continued his struggles with outside off-stump deliveries.
However, the fight by Pant (40 in 98 balls, with three fours and a six), Ravindra Jadeja (26 in 95 balls, with three fours) and skipper Jasprit Bumrah (22 in 17 balls, with three fours and a six) pushed India to 185/10 in 72.2 overs.
Boland (4/31) was the pick of the bowlers for the Aussies and once again a thorn in the eyes of Indian batters. Mitchell Starc took 3/49 while Pat Cummins got 2/37.
In their first innings, Australia lost wickets at regular intervals even when Jasprit Bumrah (2/33) walked off the field due to an injury scare. Under the stand-in skipper Virat, India continued to dominate the Aussies, skittling them out for just 181 runs and taking a four-run lead. Debutant Beau Webster (57 in 105 balls, with five fours) had a fine showing with the bat and Steve Smith (33 in 57 balls, with four boundaries and a six) showed some attacking intent.
Prasidh Krishna (3/42) and Mohammed Siraj (3/51) were the top bowlers for India.
In their second innings, despite a promising start by Yashasvi Jaiswal (22 in 35 balls, with four boundaries) and KL Rahul (13), Indian batters fell to trap of Boland’s (4/42) impressive lines and lengths, with KL, Shubman Gill (13), Virat (6), Nitish Kumar Reddy (8) falling cheaply to consolidate Australia’s position in the match. At the end of the day, India made 141/6, with Jadeja (8*) and Sundar (6*).
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