Rishabh Pant was allowed to take over the commentary for an entire over as the host broadcaster let the Indian wicket-keeper’s verbal volleys play up on the air, with commentary turned off during the first Test in Adelaide on Monday.
Pant, whose chirping from behind the stumps, has caught everyone’s attention during the ongoing Test and this time around Fox Cricket allowed him to take center-stage during R Ashwin’s over to Pat Cummins. The Indian wicket-keeper kept encouraging Cummins to go for a big shot while throwing a subtle sledge, intended or otherwise, at the bowler as well.
Watch (and listen to it) in the clips below.
Sunil Gavaskar, known to be a fan of the old-fashioned way of playing cricket, was not impressed with Pant though. Speaking during the post-lunch session in the Sony studios, Gavaskar said it was alright to ‘say anything you want to your teammates, not to the opposition,’ before adding it was not the brightest idea to sledge a fast bowler ahead of a Test match at Perth.
With so much talk before the series began over how the two teams will approach verbal duels, the Adelaide Test has seen plenty of exchanges between bowlers and batsmen from both sides, mostly with a smile. It has been keeping in line with what Virat Kohli told to expect from his side.
“Obviously, there are going to be times when you have to put the batsmen under pressure. Not necessarily crossing the line, but just get into their heads which you expect from any side in the world, not just Australia. It’s going to be there, but it’s not going to happen at the level, which has happened in the past, where both teams have lost control,” Kohli had said before the match.
Fans on Twitter loved it though, for the most part.
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