Rishabh Pant's reckless shot sparks outrage as ex-India players question his approach: 'This is Test match cricket'

India’s stand-in captain Rishabh Pant faced heavy criticism on Day 3 of the second Test against South Africa in Guwahati after he threw away his wicket at a crucial moment. India were already under pressure in the morning session after losing KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan and Dhruv Jurel, and the team needed Pant to hold the innings together and take them closer to South Africa’s big first-innings total of 489.

But right after play resumed in the second session, Pant played a careless shot and gifted his wicket to Marco Jansen. The left-hander charged down the track looking for a big shot, but only managed to edge the ball to wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne. Even though the umpire gave him out instantly, Pant still took a review, which confirmed the dismissal. He looked shocked as he walked back to the pavilion for 7 off 8 balls.

Anil Kumble slams Rishabh Pant

Former India captain Anil Kumble did not hold back in his criticism, saying Pant needed to understand the match situation better. Speaking on JioStar, Kumble said Pant ignored the match situation in the name of playing his “natural game.” He explained that as long as Pant is at the crease, the South African bowlers are never comfortable because he can change the game quickly, but that doesn’t mean he can play rash shots after facing only a few balls.

“Today’s batters say that this is my natural game, but there’s a situation as well. You need to understand the situation of the game. And then from the opponent’s point of view, as long as Rishabh Pant is out there in the middle, South African bowlers won’t be comfortable. They know that he can take the game away from you in a flash. You can’t do that with 10 balls you’ve faced. You can’t run in and say I am gonna do that. Even before tea, he smashed that six off the second ball he faced. You got away with that because you played with a straight bat. Here, one bouncer and the next ball you are running at the bowler, saying this is how I am going to disturb your rhythm,” Kumble said.

He pointed out that the Guwahati pitch was not like the tough Kolkata surface where every good-length ball was dangerous. According to him, this wicket required patience and long batting, which Indian batters failed to do. Kumble also said that Pant just needed to survive and build an innings like Seruvan Muthusamy did the previous day.

“It’s not like it was a Kolkata pitch where every ball that was bowled in a good length had a name on it. It’s not like that. It’s a good surface, you just hang in there, and you will get the loose deliveries. It’s not like Marco Jansen is going to bowl 20 overs on the trot. He is just going to bowl one spell. If he had not got wickets, I don’t think he would have bowled a longer spell either. So, you just have to hang in there. This is Test match cricket. You just bat session after session, and that’s the pitch. It’s not a pitch where you go in and change the game in one session. This is a pitch where you have to bat long and that’s the only approach. That’s what Muthusamy showed yesterday,” he added.

Parthiv Patel and Aakash Copra on Pant

Former India cricketers Aakash Chopra and Parthiv Patel also shared their views on Pant and his batting style. While Patel said there is always a chance that Pant gets out playing these kinds of shots because of his high-risk game, Chopra said he is a two-edged sword and there will always be criticism when he doesn’t score.