Former Australian cricket legend Ricky Ponting has expressed his disappointment over Indian wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant’s sloppy wicket-keeping on the first day of the third Test between India and Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Thursday.
Ponting criticized Pant for dropping debutant Will Pucovski’s catches twice, a crucial wicket for India losing which put them in a tight spot.
“The one’s (dropped catches) today are two that should be taken, simple as that,” Ponting said.
Pucovski played a phenomenal innings in his debut match, smashing a beautiful 62 runs before Navdeep Sini put an end to his reign. With Pant’s missed catches giving him two lifelines, Pucovski built a fantastic partnership with Marcus Labuschagne that helped Australia dominate the first day.
Ponting further went on to say that Pant was fortunate that Pucovski didn’t last longer or he would have easily made a century.
“It’s probably lucky for Rishabh that Pucovski didn’t go on and make a big hundred or a double hundred and looking at the wicket, it looks like an unbelievable surface.
“I’m sure when Rishabh put those catches down, he would have thought the worst and ‘here we go, he’s really going to make me pay’ but (Pucovski) didn’t today.”
Ponting was the one who voted for Pant for being a reliable batsman, capable of boosting India’s scoring capacity, however, today’s performance by the 23-year old has left Ponting questioning his capabilities.
“I’ve said it all along, the knock-on Rishabh is always going to be on his keeping. Since his debut in Test cricket, he’s dropped more catches than any other keeper in the world. That highlights he has got some work to do with his keeping.”
