Rishabh Pant was batting much unlike himself on Day 1 of IND vs AUS 5th Test in Sydney. The southpaw, known for his flamboyant batting, weathered blows to various parts of his body while continuing to bat patiently. Departing from his aggressive style of batting, Pant played a slow-paced gritty knock, holding his fort as the Aussies searched for another breakthrough but failed to get through the Pant-wall. It took 12 blows to his body for the Aussies to finally get his wicket, bringing the curtains down on his 40-run knock off 98 deliveries.
Rishabh Pant weathers Aussie bowler storm in painstaking fashion
Pant arrived at the crease right when the second session began following the dismissal of Gill at the stroke of lunch. After being called out for his wild shot selection that led to his dismissals in Melbourne, the southpaw adopted a strategy that he’s never used to. In the process, he was struck on his bicep, shoulder, groin and inner thigh – taking some serious blows and yet continuing to bat after fighting through the pain.
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Pant suffered the first blow to his bicep when he struck by a vicious delivery off Mitchell Starc. While he called for medical attention immediately, visuals of his arm revealed a purple patch on his bicep shortly afterwards. He was then struck on the helmet by Starc yet again, prompting the medicos to rush out again to check on the batter. Shortly after, he was struck on his groin area by Cummins, sending him down on his haunches.
Next, he was struck on his inner thigh in the third session. In all, the southpaw was hit 12 times before he ran out of patience and was dismissed by Scott Boland.
Pant’s 1st innings knock at the SCG was pretty much like the storm that Pujara weathered years ago. An ICT fan can never forget the body blows taken by the veteran in 2021 when he fought back hard despite copping multiple hits across his body. Similarly, Ashwin too put up a brave fight in the same tour, absorbing all the blows to his body to put up a valiant fight against an intimidating Australian pace attack.
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