India captain Rohit Sharma opened up on Rishabh Pant's dismissal in the second innings of the Boxing Day Test against Australia, stating that the wicketkeeper batter needs to understand what is required of him.
Pant was dismissed for 30 after his cool-headed innings gave up seeing a half-tracker from Travis Head which triggered a massive collapse. The wicketkeeper looked strong in his defence as he and Yashasvi Jaiswal were fighting for a draw in the Melbourne Test after the fall of three early wickets on Day 5. He had made 30 from 104 balls until the Southpaw gifted his wicket off an attempted pull to wide of long-on, where Mitchell Marsh ran and took a good catch.
"Today? Or the day before?" Rohit first asked the reporters when he was quizzed on Pant's wicket. "There hasn't been any discussion about today. Obviously, you know, we lost the game. Everybody is disappointed about how things actually panned out. We certainly didn't think of this result. There is no doubt about that."
The skipper stated that Pant needs to understand what is required of him. "Look Rishabh Pant, he needs to understand what is required of him. More than any one of us telling him, you know, it's about him understanding and figuring out what is the right way to go about it," Rohit said.
"It's just about the situation as well. Certain situations of the game where if there is a risk percentage, do you want to take that risk, do you want to let the opposition come back into the game, those are the things he needs to figure out himself.
"See I have known Rishabh for a very long time and I understand his cricket as well. In the past also we have had a lot of conversations.
"In terms of conversation, there is no way I can say that I've not had a chat with him or he doesn't understand what the team expects. It's just that fine line between telling him not to do those things or telling him," he said.
Pant and Jaiswal held the fort for a long time after three early wickets in the first session. The two saw off a wicketless second session before the visitors lost their way in the third. Pant's wicket triggered a massive collapse as India went down from 120/3 to 155 all-out. With this, Australia has taken a 2-1 lead in the five-match series, with Sydney the final match calling now.
