Sunil Gavaskar was critical of a Rishabh Pant's decision-making with the bat following his dismissal in the Rajkot T20I against South Africa.
Rishabh Pant failed with the bat for the third time as the wicketkeeper-batter scored 17 runs off 23 balls. His dismissal was all too familiar as Pant tried to slog a ball pitched outside the off-side wide line. As Sunil Gavaskar pointed out, this was Pant's 10th T20 dismissal of deliveries way outside off-stump in 2022. Gavaskar was most disappointed about the repetition of dismissal for a player of Pant's quality.
While on commentary, Gavaskar said, "He hasn't learned. He hasn't learned from his previous three dismissals. They throw wide, and he keeps going for it. He can't throw enough muscle on that. He has to stop looking to go aerial that far outside the off-stump. Ten times, he has been dismissed wide outside off-stump (in T20s in 2022)."
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"Some of them would've been called wide if he [Pant] hadn't made contact with it. Because he's so far away, he has to reach out for it. He will never get enough power on it. To keep getting out in the same series in the same manner, for a captain of the Indian team, that's not a good sign," added Gavaskar.
Thankfully for Pant, things only got better after his dismissal. The captain watched an onslaught from vice-captain Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik before an Avesh Khan-led Indian bowling attack ensured South Africa's ever lowest T20I total and a vast 82-run victory. Pant will hope for a better showing in the series decider on Sunday.
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