Rishabh Pant’s abysmal performance against Pakistan in Sunday’s India vs
Pakistan contest has many Indian cricket fans disappointed. The 24-year-old
wicketkeeping batsman, who was expected to give much needed left-handed balance
to India’s batting line-up, failed to live up to expectations and got out for
14 runs having played 12 balls. Sharma was caught by Asif Ali on a ball by
Pakistan’s Shadab Khan.

As Pant walked out of the field, there was chatter both among
commentators and fans whether he was the wrong choice and India should have
picked Dinesh Karthik instead. The 37-year-old Karthik has built a reputation
for being a big-hitting innings-finisher, something that the Indian team sorely
needed.

India finished their innings with 181 runs on board and Pakistan need
182 to win the match.

After Pant entered the dressing room, pictures emerged on social media
that showed an irate Rohit Sharma speaking rather aggressively to a cricketer who
can’t be clearly seen. Twitter began speculating if it was Pant who was getting
an earful from the skipper.

A Twitter handle called Rishabh Pant fan club tweeted a picture of the
apparent encounter with the caption: Rohit Sharma scolding Rishabh Pant for his
poor shot selection.

Sunday’s India versus Pakistan match was really Rishabh Pant’s
opportunity to shine. Skipper Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul had given India a solid
start. The openers scored 28 runs each to get India 62 runs within the
powerplay overs. However, the team started to lose quick wickets. While Virat
Kohli kept one end of the crease rolling, Surya Kumar Yadav was dismissed
cheaply for 13 runs.

When Rishabh Pant came in, the team hoped that he would carry the
innings with Kohli. But those hopes were unrealised. Pant took up 11 balls to
score 14 runs and then got out on a poor shot.

Hardik Pandya came in but went out just as quickly, for a duck. Deepak
Hooda and Virat Kohli attempted to give some stability to Indian batting but
that meant the run rate would slow down. The duo also became cautious that they
were the last batting pair as the next person to come into bat would be
Bhuvneshwar Kumar. It was this that made the Indian side sorely miss Dinesh Karthik.