Pant Showed He Is Capable of Batting in More Than One Style - Nasser Hussain
Rishabh Pant is more renowned for his hard-hitting batting style but yesterday he showed great composure.
The Indian cricket team has set up a good chance to win for them with the help of their lower order moving into the final day of the 4th Test. The partnership between Rishabh Pant and Shardul Thakur's 100-run partnership played a key role in putting their side in a strong position.
Meanwhile, commentator and former captain of England, Nasser Hussain, praised Rishabh Pant in his column for the Daily Mail. He wrote, "Pant showed he is capable of batting in more than one style...He was trying to be sensible, which is why England had to tempt him out of his shell."
He was referring to the ongoing Test match between India and England at the Oval. On the 4th day, Pant had scored 50 runs in 106 balls.
On the field setting by English captain Joe Root, he said, "I also felt Root got it wrong with the field he gave Pant. Because he was batting responsibly for the first time in the series, Root should have dangled some kind of carrot by bringing deepish mid-off up, and tempting Pant to hit over the top."
"Instead, he kept the fielder back, which allowed Pant to push easy singles. He was trying to be sensible, which is why England had to tempt him out of his shell. They didn’t, which summed up their day: long, hot and extremely frustrating."
Criticizing Root for not using spinners enough, he wrote, "I was mystified by Joe Root’s tactics between lunch and tea. On a flat pitch, on the fourth afternoon — probably the hottest of the series — every other team in the world would have been bowling their frontline spinner. Instead, Root kept flogging seamers Anderson and Ollie Robinson, who has been going hard at India all series."
"It just feels as if a lack of trust in spin bowling is so endemic in the English game...On an extremely flat Oval pitch, they needed their captain and their No 1 spinner to be on top of their games — and neither quite managed it."
Commenting on India's lower order, he said, "Their lower order have worked on their batting and on Sunday— for the third time in the series — they made an important contribution.
First, there was Lord's on the last morning, when Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah put on 89 and took the game away from England. Then, on the first day here, Shardul Thakur helped turn a potential 150 all out into 191, which kept his side in the game.
On Sunday, the last four added 150, with Thakur scoring another half-century, and Bumrah and Umesh Yadav again making useful runs."
"They saw how New Zealand’s lower order outperformed their own during the World Test Championship final in Southampton, and decided to do something about it. I take my hat off to them", added Hussain.
