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Legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar feels India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant for throwing away his wicket in the second innings of the 4th Test against Australia in Melbourne. For the second time in the match, Pant got out while playing a rash shot. In the first innings, Pant was caught at deep third man after mistiming his ramp shot. On Day 5, Pant once again took the aerial route against part-time spinner Travis Head, only to be caught at cow corner. Gavaskar felt there was no need for Pant to play that shot, especially with India in a steady position.
Pant was batting alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal, and the pair added 88 runs for the 3rd wicket. However, shortly after Tea, Pant took a risk, and it didn't work out for him.
"Yes, absolutely around tea time when Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal had batted through the post-lunch session, it certainly looked India could achieve a draw because it was a matter of batting for another hour really without losing a wicket, and Australia would have then given up," Gavaskar told India Today.
"The whole idea was try and take into the mandatory overs and if around the mandatory overs India had just lost maybe four wickets then Australia, after a couple off overs, would have asked to shake hands but that didn't happen."
As Pant got a long hop from Travis Head after a 103-ball vigil, during which he shared 84 runs for the fourth wicket with Jaiswal, he hit it straight to Mitchell Marsh at in the deep in search of a six.
"...the issue is you know there is this shot called sixer in cricket and which is like a drug. Once you hit a couple of sixes, then you think that's a real a high because once you hit the ball cleanly of the middle of the bat and it goes into the stands, there is no better feeling for a batter. Sixer is a different feeling and it's a drug, it gets into your system," Gavaskar said.
"The difference between a boundary and a six is just two runs but the risk percentage is 100 per cent. Boundary is hit along the ground no risk at all, a six is attempted with the ball up in the air and if you don't time it, if it hits the toe of your bat, it can go up and you can be out caught."
"At that particular point of time there was no need to go for a six, it was not going to win us the match. There was a long on there, there was a deep square leg there, so if a pull shot along the ground would have been attempted it would have got you four runs, and that is how it opened the door for Australia."
(With PTI Inputs)