Sunil Gavaskar praises Rishabh Pant for fighting innings; says other Indian batters could learn lessons

It’s been a few days that Sunil Gavaskar went viral for saying “stupid, stupid, stupid” on the microphone while doing commentary in the ongoing India vs Australia series. The Indian cricket legend was angered Rishabh Pant’s shot selection in the previous Test.
On Saturday, though, Gavaskar was chuffed at how Rishabh Pant had managed to navigate the spicy pitch on offer at the Sydney Cricket Ground and managed to score 61 runs off 33 balls in India’s second innings to add to his 40-run tally in the first innings at the SCG.
“These are quite impactful runs (from Rishabh Pant), 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 Rishabh Pant played at Melbourne versus the shot that he’s 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 possess of playing down the ground and hitting big sixes in those regions, he capitalised on it. Rishabh Pant tried 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’s his 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 his normal game when it comes to T20 but not 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 you normal game then there are quite few chances that you might be successful,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports at the end of second day’s play in Sydney.
READ MORE: With Jasprit Bumrah watching from on the field and off it, ‘captain’ Virat Kohli calls the shots
Former India cricketer Sanjay Bangar added: “The kind of bravery that Rishabh Pant portrayed with his bat, that is the only reason I think that India is in a position where we are still thinking that we can win this match. If you keep this innings aside, the way he played, the calculative risks that he took, the way he played those shots, because Mitchell Starc’s deliveries swing in when the ball gets a bit old so he played the shots towards the square-leg.
“Scott Boland who hits the length, Rishabh Pant stepped out and played him, where there was no fielder in the point region he played those cut shots. So it was quite a composed innings, it was not that he came out and started playing shots without even thinking anything about it. When Rishabh Pant plays like this, he has shown that he is quite diverse and you also expect that when a player has played 40-45 test matches, the way he played in the first innings where he took those blows on his body, sometimes you’ll have to play like that and you’ll have to respect the conditions. And today situation of the match was such that a strategy a was put in place where he played counter-attacking innings and it is quite pleasant to watch when he plays those counter-attacking innings!”

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