Dinesh Karthik was a few of those who backed the erratic way of batting that Rishabh Pant adopts, However with his latest dismissal in the ongoing second Test match between South Africa and India, Pant has invited a lot of criticism for throwing away his wicket when his team needed runs from him.
The risk vs rewards debate was triggered once again after the wicket-keeper batsman incurred a 3-ball duck on the second innings of the second Test against South Africa. Pant tried to charge Kagiso Rabada to hoick him but managed only a knick to keeper Kyle Verreynne.
Dinesh Karthik discussed the way Pant was dismissed and said that this is the way he bats and has won matches doing the same thing. However, he said that he didn’t like the shot on which Pant got out, as it was just the third ball of his innings and had received a brilliant delivery from Rabada previously.
"Definitely let Pant go play his way, which is fine with me. But he's somebody who's clever about it, that's what he has learned in international cricket. What I didn't like about the shot was the fact that I think the previous ball, which was an absolute snorter, dictated how he played the next ball. Which is not the Rishabh Pant we know.
He's someone who'll live by the sword, die by the sword. He has won matches doing this but he has been clever about it. He plays a shot which within his repertoire and that what enables him to be successful. But this one was more out of a 'put the bowler on the backfoot' shot. We use this word - 'impose himself'. Whereas he is somebody who I feel assesses a situation and then attacks," Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
Over the last couple of years, Pant’s ‘My way or the highway' style of play has seen him win important matches for India in Australia and at home against England. But seeing the way he was dismissed by Rabada on day 3 of the second Test, Karthik feels head coach Rahul Dravid will not be a pleased man in the Indian dressing room.
"We are gonna get dismissals like that but we'd rather get that when we play 10, 12, 14 balls. To do that on the third ball with the second ball being an absolute snorter. I do feel that Rahul Dravid won't be too happy about it. We know how Dravid played his cricket - guts it out, fought it out just like what Pujara and Rahane did. Pant would be a tad disappointed with the shot option he took," Karthik concluded.
