Australia won the third test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2023 at Indore by nine wickets. The home side now has a lead of 2-1 against the visitors. At the same time, the Aussies have qualified for the World Test Championship (WTC) final after avoiding a clean sweep in the ongoing four-match series. Ian Chappell feels the Rohit Sharma-led side is missing their regular keeper Rishabh Pant’s services in BGT 2023.
Ian Chappell feels India’s favourable condition misfired them instead of the Australian side-
“One of the big differences is that there is no Rishabh Pant in this Indian side. They have started to see how important Rishabh Pant is to the Indian side,” said the former Australian skipper.
Pant met with a car accident in December 2022 and is still recovering from the misfortune. Pant will also not feature in the upcoming season of IPL.Indian wicketkeeper-batter got involved in a car accident on the Delhi-Dehradun highway in the early morning of December 30th 2022. He suffered major injuries from the car accident.
The left-handed batter is yet to make his mark in limited overs cricket, but the 25-year-old has already stamped his authority in the longer format. During the previous BGT in Australia, Pant finished as the highest-run-getter from the team India, scoring 274 runs from five innings.
Pant didn’t score a century then but his 97-run knock in Sydney was a crucial inning, followed by an unbeaten 89 at the Gabba while chasing over 300 runs on Day 5, and is considered one of the greatest test victories of India on foreign soil. Men in Blue halted the Aussies 32 years undefeated streak at the Gabba ground and won the series by 2-1.
In the stylish left-handed batter’s absence, Rohit Sharma-led side has included KS Bharat in the playing XI, he is picked ahead of limited overs star player Ishan Kishan, the Patna-born cricketer recently scored the fastest double century in ODIs against Bangladesh in December 2022. While Bharat managed just 57 runs from five innings at an average of 14.25 in BGT 2023.
Men in Blue now has the 2-1 lead in the four-test match series, and the home side needs to win the last game to qualify for the WTC Final in England. Rohit Sharma-led side will take on Australia for the fourth test of BGT at Ahmedabad on 9th March.