In the recently concluded third Test between England and India, wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant gathered everyone’s attention when he was spotted shadow batting at the non-strikers’ end. The clip of the incident has gone viral on social media.
Pant, who came to bat after India lost the big wicket of captain Virat Kohli, seemed to be unaware of the fact that James Anderson was storming in to bowl to Ajinkya Rahane.
Despite Rahane was already in his batting stance and waiting to play the ball, Pant was seen shadow batting. However, before Anderson could deliver the ball, the Indian wicketkeeper-batter got back into his crease.
Here is the video:
Pant non-striker shadow batting #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/hYGoBKg3zh
— Cat Jones (@Cricketbatcat) August 28, 2021
However, Pant failed to leave his impact in the game as Ollie Robinson dismissed the left-handed batter for only 1 run.
The Indian batting witnessed the worst collapse on the fourth day and got bundled out for 278 in their second innings, losing the contest by an innings and 76 runs.
Robinson was the pick of the bowlers for England. He bagged a five-wicket haul for 65 runs and was named ‘Player of the Match’ for his scintillating performance.
After the embarrassing loss, Kohli reckoned that the batting collapse happened because of the scoreboard pressure.
“It’s down to scoreboard pressure. We knew we were up against it when we were out for 80, and the opposition put up a big score. We put up crucial partnerships and saw the day through, but the pressure from the English bowlers was brilliant this morning, and we didn’t respond well,” said Kohli at the post-match presentation.
“Batting collapses can happen in this country; the pitch was good to bat on, but their discipline with the ball forced us to make a few mistakes, and it was difficult to deal with spells where we weren’t getting runs. We didn’t make good decisions as a batting side,” he added.
