Day 4 of the first Test match against England saw Rishabh Pant continue to captivate the Leeds audience with his daring stroke-making. After hitting a spectacular century in the first innings, the wicketkeeper batted with the same aggressive style in the second innings.
After captain Shubman Gill left early on Day 4, he teamed up with KL Rahul. Despite the challenging, cloudy circumstances, the left-handed batsman seized the opportunity and launched a counterattack against the English bowlers.
It was the third ball of the 32nd over. Pant went on his knees and went for a slog sweep, which top-edged and ended up in the fine-leg region between the two fielders, and it raced away for a boundary.
"Considering the conditions and the situation of the game, I don't think that was the percentage shot. I know he's got the result, a pretty successful one. But the odds were definitely not stacked in his favour. Playing the sweep to a bowler who's bowling 130 clicks above 140 doesn't make sense to me. He thought he'd gone there. He saw he'd gone straight up. His reaction was almost, I'm not running here. Someone's going to catch this, but the wind took it away from the slip cordon," Karthik said during commentary.
Rishabh Pant then attempted a ramp shot off Bryson Carse. He failed to connect the shot, while falling over and the bowler and England team appealed for an LBW. England skipper Ben Stokes also appealed for an LBW dismissal and took the review, but the replay showed a slight edge on the bat.
Later, after the end of the over, Pant was livid with himself and was seen talking to himself about playing with some control and not going after everything.
Pant said to himself, 'Tez ball hai Rishabh, maarna hai toh seedha lag jaayega naa iss ball pe, kuch alag karne ki zarurat nahi hai."
Michael Atherton asked Dinesh Karthik to translate for them, and the ex-India cricketer stated: “First up, he said to himself, play with the straight bat, I can still middle it. Don't try to do too much. He is almost talking himself into saying he doesn't need to do anything out of the ordinary. He's pretty disappointed with what he did, but I hope he listens to himself.”
At the time of writing this piece, India had posted 148/3 with KL Rahul having passed the 70-run mark and Rishabh Pant playing on 27 runs.
