Former India opener Gautam Gambhir defended another Rishabh Pant’s dismissal in the 90s as he said that the wicketkeeper should keep backing his attacking shots without worrying about milestones. He also compared his Gabba knock (89*) to MS Dhoni’s match-winning knock in World Cup 2011 final.
It was Rishabh Pant’s 5th score of the 90s in Test Cricket in his 29 Test matches career. The 24-year old scored 4 hundreds so far. In his first series at home, he scored back-to-back scores of 90s against West Indies in 2018. Then again last year in Australia, he fell short by 3 runs to the three-figure mark at Sydney. Later in the home series against England, he scored 91 at Chennai.
It was Rishabh Pant’s 5th score of 90s in Test Cricket
Speaking to Star Sports, Gautam Gambhir said that Pant’s approach should be encouraged as it can win many matches for India.
“What mattered to me was the manner in which he played the second phase of his knock. That is what you call smart cricket. He knew that there weren’t many overs left for the new ball to be introduced. And their premier fast bowler was injured then. That is why he chose to attack the left-arm spinner and the off-spinner because Karunaratne wouldn’t have brought his fast bowlers then. So that was smart cricket for me because he assessed the conditions and made most of the opportunity to put India in dominant position. So those second half of his knock was very important to me,” Gautam Gambhir said.
He also recalled his knocks in Sydney and Brisbane last year as he compared those knocks with Dhoni’s knock in World Cup final in 2011. He also stressed that people shouldn’t be obsessed with numbers as the main motive should always be a priority.
“The stats that you showed right now, it shows that centuries give you headlines, 90s give you tournament or series win. Because those 90s helped you in Sydney and Brisbane and helped you in winning the series. And this same 90 that helped MS Dhoni win the World Cup,” he added.
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