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

Pant looked fluid as he got to 28 off 37 balls off Ravindra Jadeja, resuming India’s reply from an overnight 164 for 5, the two of them having all but seen through the first hour’s play. That’s when Pant attempted a scoop outside off to leg off Scott Boland, but delivered a straightforward catch to deep third off the leading edge.

“I think earlier when there hadn’t been any fielders around that’s when he tried those shots, it’s understandable because you take a very good chance,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports during the lunch break. “It (the shot) should have gone to the leg side, it went to the off side, it actually tells you that maybe (there was) a little bit of bad luck involved, but terrible choice of a shot to play on that particular shot. point with two fielders down at deep square leg and deep point.”

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

Pant scores many 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 sensible.

“It just seems like 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, he drives the orthodox way, if he only thinks he’s going to go down the pitch, hammer the ball over long or just looking to play those shots, which means at the Test level you can’t always succeed. So you have to be prepared that sometimes he will give you some runs to knock down the order.”

Gavaskar was on live commentary on ABC Radio at the time of the dismissal, saying that 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’re still going for it, you’ve missed the previous shot. And look where you’ve been caught. You’ve been caught at deep third man. That’s throwing your wicket away. Not in that situation, like India was. You have to understand the situation too, you can’t say it’s your natural game bad!”