Pant needs to understand what is important for him: Rohit Sharma

Indian captain Rohit Sharma on Monday told Rishabh Pant, who lost his wicket on an aggressive shot after a great partnership with Yashasvi Jaiswal, that he has to ‘understand what is important for him’.

When Jaiswal and Pant were present at the crease, the fourth Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy was heading towards a draw. Still, Pant played an aggressive shot against part-time spinner Travis Head in the last session of the day and returned to the pavilion after being caught at long-on. The Indian innings faltered as soon as he was out and Australia took a 2-1 lead in the series with a victory of 184 runs.

Pant was also out in the first innings of this match by playing an irresponsible shot. His wicket in both the innings gave Australia a chance to take control of the match. His dismissal by playing a lap shot on Scott Boland’s ball in the first innings was termed as stupid by former great batsman Sunil Gavaskar, who was commentating. Pant was the hero of India’s victory on the last tour of Australia, but on the current tour, he is constantly losing his wicket by playing irresponsible shots.

When Rohit was asked about Pant’s dismissal in the post-match press conference on Monday, he jokingly asked, “Today? (or) that day.” The Indian captain said, “There has been no discussion about today. We have just lost the match and everyone is disappointed with this. We did not think about this result.” He said, “Pant needs to understand what is important for him. He needs to understand these things himself more than any of us need to tell him.” The captain admitted that Pant’s aggressive batting has brought great success to the team in the past, but he wants this wicketkeeper-batsman to maintain a balance between aggressive and defensive play. He said, “It is also about circumstances. You have to think about the risk according to the situation of the game. You have to think whether you want to give the opponent a chance to come back in the match. These are things that he needs to understand himself.”

Rohit said that he has known Pant for a long time and has talked to him about this many times.

He said, “I cannot say about talking to Pant that I have not talked to him or he does not understand what the team expects from him. There is a very fine line between what to do and what not to do.”

The Indian team is trailing 1-2 in the five-match series. The fifth Test match of the series will start on January 3.

Rohit also defended the decision to exclude Shubman Gill from the playing XI for this match. He said that it was not his decision alone and the team felt the need for more options in bowling. Gill proved to be the team’s best batsman in the pink ball Test match played in Adelaide.

Rohit said, “I have talked to Gill. When you have no other option but to leave someone out, then you will talk. In a conversation with him, it was made clear that he had not been dropped. We wanted extra help in bowling.”

Rohit said, “Along with this, we wanted to give depth to the batting. We also had a bowling attack that could take 20 wickets.”

The Indian captain said, “Everyone must understand this because we do not make individual decisions. Decisions have to be taken keeping in mind the team’s best interest.”