India wicketkeeper-batsman, Rishabh Pant has once again become the target of online trolls after his poor show behind the stumps on Day 1 of the third Test against Australia in Sydney.
Despite losing the toss, the visitors were in the commanding position against Tim Paine-led side as they dismissed David Warner in the fourth over. The swashbuckling Australia opener managed to score only 5 runs and was dismissed by Navdeep Saini.
India could have also dismissed Warner’s opening partner, Will Pucovski when he was on 26. However, the 23-year-old southpaw dropped a sitter on the bowling of Ravichandran Ashwin. It was not the only time when Pant failed to complete the catch. The right-handed batsman was given another lifeline when Pant was not able to grab the ball on the bowling of Mohammed Siraj.
Pucovski made the most of Pant’s dropped catches and smashed 62 runs in his debut game for the Baggy Greens.
Talking about Pant’s sloppy glove work, former Australia skipper, Ricky Ponting said the youngster needs to focus on improving his wicket-keeping skills as such drops could prove to be very costly for his side.
Speaking to cricket.com.au, Ponting said, “It’s probably lucky for Rishabh that Pucovski didn’t score a hundred or a double hundred, and looking at the wicket, it looks like an unbelievable surface.”
“I’m sure when Rishabh put those catches down, he would have thought the worst, ‘here we go, he’s really going to make me pay’ but Pucovski didn’t today. That highlights he has got some work to do with his keeping.”
Leave a comment