Rishabh Pant got out due to ‘message’ from Gautam Gambhir and Shubman Gill? Dinesh Karthik speculated

Rishabh Pant looked at ease. Although Shubman Gill and Karun Nair had both departed in quick succession, the Indian vice-captain continued going his regular way, which is playing aggressive cricket. Ravindra Jadeja had joined him, and everything seemed in India’s control.

It wasn’t long before lunch was to be taken. And knowing this, a message came from the dressing room. There was something captain Shubman Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir wished to convey to Pant and Jadeja. Soon after, Pant departed, and as luck would have it, Shardul Thakur was dismissed in the final over before lunch was taken.

Gill & Gambhir responsible for Pant’s dismissal?

Former Indian batter Dinesh Karthik thinks that message may have played a role in Pant’s dismissal. He reasons that someone like Pant goes about his way and when you tell him to play against his instinct, it might be a recipe for disaster.

“Also very interesting, when a message was sent out to Rishabh Pant, it curbed his style of play. He was just very carefree with his stroke-making… I get the feeling that a message was sent to tell him to calm down, which doesn’t work for certain players, I guess,” Karthik said while commentating.

It’s reasonable that Gill and Gambhir want them to not lose wickets, but for players like Pant, you don’t need to construct anything. Just let them be. He did score 134 runs by his own approach and to make him go away from that isn’t a great tactic.

“As a coach, it’s completely understandable when you want to get a message across to the batter. But over time, you realise, for certain players, how you send that message becomes very important. What is the tone? What is the language used that gets the best out of the batter? Maybe with Rishabh Pant, it needs to be a different way in which you get things done,” he added.