Rishabh Pant the entertainer gets his timing wrong, faces flak for rash shot

What you love about Rishabh Pant is also what you hate about him.

- Ashish Magotra

MELBOURNE: How often has one watched the sudden, inappropriate end of a knock and wondered: what the hell was he thinking?

It was a day for India to play the smart game. They had started Saturday on 164/5 with Pant on six and Ravindra Jadeja on four, and were well behind the game. So, a good partnership should've been the first thing on the team's wishlist. And for a while, both batters seemed to realise that.

According to CricViz's PitchViz model, which uses ball-tracking data to assess the pitch/general conditions, it was the best day for batting in the series. The ball wasn't doing much off the pitch or in the air and Pant was happy to knock it around.

Maybe the initial edges through the slips early in the day tempered his attacking instincts a bit, but only just. The first four of the day was an edge through the vacant third slip area. Then, eight balls later, he was at it again. Down the pitch to Pat Cummins and smashed it over wide mid-on. Nine balls later, Scott Boland dropped one short and it was pulled powerfully through square leg.