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

That’s when Pant attempted a scoop from outside off to the leg side but handed a straightforward catch to deep third off a leading edge. Pant had tried an identical shot on the previous ball too, in the 56th over off Scot Boland, but had inside-edged it onto himself while losing his balance. He connected only slightly better the next ball, fell again, but holed out to Nathan Lyon. India were 191 for 5 before he fell, still trailing by 283, although India avoided the follow-on later.

“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 the go to the leg side, that went to the off side, it actually tells you maybe 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 scores a lot of his runs through unorthodox and attacking shots which is why it stirred up a debate about whether the attempted scoop was justified or not. Gavaskar pointed out that with two fielders waiting in the deep for his aerial shots, Pant should not have played the shot that led to his downfall.

“It just appears to be that that’s the only way he thinks he’s capable of scoring runs. 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 got to be prepared for the fact that he will get you some runs sometimes. If that is the case, then he cannot bat at No. 5, he’s got to bat down the order.”

Gavaskar was livid on live commentary on ABC Radio at the time Pant got out and said Pant let India “down badly” by “throwing away” his wicket.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” was Gavaskar’s immediate reaction while raising his voice when Pant got out. “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. I’m sorry, that is not your natural game. That is a stupid shot. That is letting your team down badly!”