Aus vs Ind, BGT – Sunil Gavaskar criticizes timing of Rishabh Pant’s ‘terrible shot selection’

Pant looked fluent as he got to 28 off 37 balls after Ravindra Jadeja and he resumed India’s reply from the overnight 164 for 5, and the two of them had seen nearly through the first hour of play. That’s when Pant attempted a scoop from outside off to the leg side off Scott Boland, but handed a straightforward catch to deep third 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.”

Pant had tried an identical shot on the previous ball too, in the 56th over, off Boland, but had inside-edged it on to his body as he lost his balance. He connected only slightly better the next ball, hit the ground again, but got out to Nathan Lyon. India were 191 for 5 before he fell, still trailing by 283, although with Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar leading the charge, they got into a good position as the day wore on.

Pant does score a lot of his runs through unorthodox and attacking shots. Gavaskar pointed out that with two fielders waiting in the deep exactly that kind of shot, Pant should have been more judicious.

“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 to be prepared for the fact that he will get you some runs sometimes. “

Gavaskar was on live commentary on ABC Radio at the time of the dismissal, and said Pant had let India “down badly” by “throwing away” his wicket.

“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 badly!”