The Indian wicket-keeper batter, Rishabh Pant, has faced so much criticism coming into the fifth and final Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 with scores of 37, 01, 21, 28, 09, 28, 30. The Indian captain, Rohit Sharma, at the end of the last red-ball on the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), was critical of the aggressive approach of the batter.
Rishabh Pant showed he could bat in a different mode during the Pink game, where the discipline on the pitch of the home Australian side, along with the help from the surface, was making it incredibly hard for the batters. The Uttarakhand-born took so many body blows in the innings before getting hit on the head.
He came to bat at the start of the second session after the touring side lost Shubman Gill in the final game of the first two hours. Pant took them to the Tea break for the loss of one more wicket, batting in a defensive manner, which he doesn’t look to do normally.
“I think, in this innings, I was not in a frame of mind where I wanted to take charge of the game because the wicket was doing too much. And the kind of situation we were in and while playing, inside I felt like I could do, like play a little bit of defensive cricket, yes there is a time to attack, but when you have to feel that from inside.” Rishabh Pant expressed this at the press conference at the end of the opening day of the fifth Test match.
Also Read: Hardik Pandya To Lead India During Champions Trophy 2025!! BCCI Keeps This Condition
“I can’t just pre-meditate that I’m going to play this way, whatever the game asked me to do on that given day that’s what I try to do, and that was the mindset.” The wicket-keeper batter added.
“Sometimes you have to play more sensible cricket”- Rishabh Pant
The shot at the MCG in the first innings saw the batter getting caught at deep third man against Scott Boland, having missed out on the previous delivery. In the second innings, he and Yashasvi Jaiswal put up a good partnership between them before the former, looking to pull the short ball from Travis Head, was caught at the edge of the boundary circle.
The head coach of the side, Gautam Gambhir, communicated with the players to go for a team-first approach and decide whether to go with the attitude which only suits the situation of the side.
“I think it’s a little bit not very difficult. Yes, the initial part would be very difficult because when you see a ball, which you can hit, but sometimes you have to play more sensible cricket, I would say.” Rishabh Pant addressed this during the conversation.
“Like there might be 50-50 chance which I could have taken early on in this innings, but sometimes you have to play more secure cricket, especially the way [SCG] wicket was behaving, we knew that if we get one more wicket here, we might lose two-three in a quick succession so that was the idea behind the way I was playing and last match there was nothing much to do the kind of target we had I think I had to play that [defensively] way so I think pretty fine with the way I’m playing.” The veteran highlighted.
Also Read: Sanjay Manjrekar Supports Rishabh Pant Despite Criticism After 4th Melbourne Test
The southpaw finished with a great knock of 40 runs in 98 deliveries with the help of three boundaries and one six at the strike rate of 41, as they finished on 185 in their first innings. It was such an unusual knock from a batter whose career strike rate is over 70.
“I think, mostly, you want to back whatever the way you have played the game, but eventually, you got to keep on evolving. There is, I feel, there is not one way to play cricket, but whatever comes more naturally is always better.” Rishabh Pant concluded.