Pant looked fluent as he got 28 off 37 balls after Ravindra Jadeja and resumed the reply with 164 for 5 off the all-night stand, with the pair seeing out the first hour of the match almost to the end. Pant then tried to scoop it towards Scott Boland’s leg side outside off, but handed him a direct catch from the leading edge to deep third.
“I think early on when he went for these shots when there were no defenders around him, it was understandable because he had a very good opportunity,” Gavaskar told Star Sports during the lunch break. “It (the shot) should have gone towards the leg side, but it went offside. There may actually be a bit of bad luck involved, but it speaks to the poor selection of shots to play in that particular area. Deep square leg and deep point. “Place two defenders on.”
Pant attempted the same shot on the previous ball off Boland on 56 but lost his balance and hit the inside edge on his body. He connected slightly better with the next ball, which hit the ground again, but was holed out by Nathan Lyon. India were 191 for 5 before he fell and were still 283 behind, but with Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar leading the way, they were in a good position as the day went on.
Pant has scored a lot of runs through unorthodox and aggressive shots. Gavaskar pointed out that Pant should have been more cautious with two defenders waiting for exactly that kind of shot.
“I think that’s the only way he thinks he can score,” Gavaskar said. “So if he can’t score in an orthodox way, if he’s just thinking about going down the pitch and hitting the ball for a long time or just taking these shots, that means it’s a test, he can’t always succeed at the level. If that’s the case then he You have to be prepared for the fact that sometimes he’s going to score, then he can’t bat at number five and he has to break down the order.”
Gavaskar appeared on live commentary. ABC radio At the time of his dismissal, Pant said he had “seriously let down” India by “throwing away” his wicket.
“Fool, fool, fool” was Gavaskar’s immediate response. “There are two fielders there and they still try to do that. They missed the previous shot. And look where they got caught. They got caught by the deep third man. That’s throwing away a wicket. That’s not the case in conditions like India. You too. You have to understand the situation, you can’t say that’s your natural game, you’re letting your team down badly!”
