“Stupid, go back to…”: Sunil Gavaskar Livid with Rishabh pants. The reason for the robbery is…

On By Littum

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 under-delivered. It was the same careless old way of dismissal, something that prompted Gavaskar to start a rant that has gone viral. The third day’s MCG pitch is perhaps the best to hit on with green grass giving way to a brownish tinge and old one Kookaburra barely 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 started well and got a couple of boundaries, but then the urge to play the falling lap pull over long-leg led to his dismissal.

When Pant tried it for the first time off Scott Boland coming around the wicket, he was hit in the naval area and appeared to be in pain. He stood up but was unaware that Pat Cummins had placed a fielder at deep fine leg and one at deep third man for both the conventional and reverse lap shots.

Not learning his lessons or worrying about success rate, Pant tried a similar shot but the extra bounce meant the top edge flew to third man for a regular catch.

“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! You’ve got two fielders there and you’re still going for that. You’ve missed the previous shot and look where you’ve been caught. You’ve caught a deep third man. That’s throwing away your wicket not in the situation that you have to understand the situation your team is falling badly He shouldn’t go in the (Indian) dressing room, he should go in the other dressing room,” Gavaskar said on ABC Sport.

But a superb half-century by Nitish Kumar Reddy and ably assisted by Washington Sundar helped India go past the score of 300 against Australia.

With PTI inputs

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