Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar is missing Indian wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant, who is in rehabilitation after he survived a horrific car accident, last year. While Indian batters were having a hard time against Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon in the 1st innings after the latter reduced the hosts to 100 for seven wickets, Gavaskar remembered Pant.
Although Virat Kohli showed maturity in the middle and the Ashwin-Axar duo chipped in once again to rescue the side and put Men in Blue in a commanding position, Pant's aggression was missing. Notably, Pant is far away from on-field action his name popped up a couple of times as the commentators were discussing how the left-handed batter has dominated Australian spinners time and again.
Pant has been one of India's most successful batters in this format for the last three or four years. The left-hander, in fact, was India's leading run-scorer in Tests last year. Pant’s remarkable numbers were flashed on-air multiple times when India were tottering at 139-7 at one stage. Meanwhile, batting maestro Sunil Gavaskar missed Pant’s chirpy nature behind the stumps as the legendary batter shared an emotional message for Pant in the commentary box during Australia’s second innings.
“Australia is lucky that Rishabh Pant is not there. He would have had a fair bit to say, not necessarily to the batters but certainly to his teammates. Rishabh if you are listening, we are missing you, get well soon,” Gavaskar said.
Talking about the match, India is currently in a comfortable situation as Australia could only give 115 as a target. Ravindra Jadeja once again enabled his beast mode during Australia’s second inning as the off-spinner picked seven wickets in the game, while his partner Ashwin bagged three wickets. For Aussies, Travis Head (43) and Marnus Labuschagne (35) helped the side to somehow post a respected total on board. Nine of the Australian batters could not even reach double digits in their second innings.