Rishabh Pant’s knock in the World Test Championship final against New Zealand drew a lot of attention and several former cricketers reacted to his batting in the second innings.
Now, former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has commented on Pant’s knock.
“I know Rishabh Pant plays very well in a destructive fashion. But destructive batting doesn’t mean that you walk down the wicket to pace bowlers and try to hit them out of the ground. Some responsibility was required,” Pathan said during a discussion on Star Sports.
Pant scored 41 off 88 balls with four boundaries, during his knock the southpaw was seen coming down the track to take on the seamers but missed many chances. He even gave his wicket away in a similar fashion off Trent Boult’s delivery.
“If we talk about proper cricketing reasons where we went wrong in this match, it was even after the first innings. But after that, the second innings batting was extremely disappointing because the ball was not moving that much in the second innings. So, they could have batted more responsibly there.”
“I also felt that when they were bowling the bouncers against the Indian batsmen, they were trying to play the pull shot instead of taking it on the body. It means there a slight shortage of commitment was also seen,” noticed Pathan.
“They played a batsman short. I was saying this even before the Test match started but that is my thinking. Then we do not have a fast-bowling all-rounder like New Zealand have. Getting one in is also slightly difficult.”
