Sunrisers Hyderabad won their first match in IPL 2020 by defending 163 runs against Delhi Capitals in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. After two consecutive high scoring matches, there was finally a clash between the bat and the ball. After the match, Delhi captain Shreyas Aiyar said, "We didn't know the mood of the pitch. In the second innings, batting seemed to be easy due to the mist, but some balls were coming to a halt." Taking advantage of the slow wicket, Afghanistan's Rashid Khan took 3 wickets for 14 runs in 4 overs. After giving basic background knowledge to those who have not seen the match, now let's talk about the issue. Rishabh Pant, standing at the crease with 26 balls, came into Rashid's ego in the last over, hit a shot and threw the match. This is not the first time that Pant's shot selection has hit his team hard, do you remember the 2019 World Cup semifinals?
Pant's legacy is wrong shot selection
Rishabh Pant sometimes tries to play mature innings, sometimes comes down to the ground to deceive the bowlers from the first ball. The problem is that most of the time he gets lost in the thoughts - "Play with me or in peace, now or then?
The grandfather pair of Pant and Marcus Stoinis stood on the ground. Warner called on Rashid Khan to bowl his final over. 3 runs came in the first 3 balls. The fourth ball Pant hit a big shot in an attempt to hit a six. Rashid's ball was slow, bounced a little higher and took the outside edge of Pant's bat. Catch out on deep square leg. What would any other chase master do instead of Pant?
We have just seen bowlers leaking runs under pressure this season. Rashid had 3 overs left. 1 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 1 Khalil Ahmed and 1 T. Natarajan was about to leave. By emphasizing single-double in Rashid's over, the run rate could be chased up to 14 in the final 3 overs. Chase master MS Dhoni has always been doing the same. Take the match to the end and attack the weak link of the opposing team, but Pant was tempted. If Rashid gave the ball air, his ego forced Pant to cross the stump just before the ball fell. How long will the love story of Pant, who lost the title of Team India's first choice wicketkeeper and his shot selection, last after so many chances?
There are
4 wicketkeepers in the top-10 run scorers of IPL this season. Lokesh Rahul has scored 222 runs in 3 matches at an average of 111 and a strike rate of 156.33. Rahul is the leading run scorer. Sanju Samson is fourth in the list with 159 runs in 2 matches with an average of 79.50 and a strike of 214.86. The other two wicketkeepers in the top-10 are AB de Villiers (fifth) and Johnny Bairstow (seventh). Ishaan Kishan, meanwhile, is 11th in the list of run scorers with 99 runs in just one match.
Rishabh Pant has scored 96 runs in 3 matches at an average of 48. His average is 48, as he was once not out. Rahul has become the first choice wicketkeeper in Team India's ODIs and T20s, while Riddhiman Saha is the best keeper in the world in Tests. There is no doubt that this IPL will play a big role in Pant's career. Will Pant improve his shot selection or will this love story of his and shot selection remain the same?
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