India captain Rohit Sharma was in no mood to duck bouncers as he attended the press conference on the eve of the 5th Test against England in Dharamsala. Rohit, on being asked about the comment from England batter Ben Duckett about the visiting team taking credit for Yashasvi Jaiswal’s attacking heroics, sent a firm ‘Rishabh Pant reminder’ to everyone. Hitting sixers in the media conference on Wednesday, Rohit had no hesitation in suggesting to the England team, especially Ben Duckett, that they have probably not seen Rishabh Pant bat, hence such a comment was made.
“There was a guy called Rishabh Pant in our team, probably Ben Duckett hasn’t seen him play,” Rohit said when asked about the comment made by the England batter.
Yashasvi Jaiswal has emerged as India’s top-scoring batter in the series, scoring 655 runs in 4 matches so far at an average of 94.57 and a strike-rate of 78.63. Seeing the young India batter deal in boundaries during the Rajkot Test, Duckett had suggested that the England team’s ‘Bazball’ style of play should give credit for encouraging Jaiswal to play the way he has in the series so far.
“When you see players from the opposition playing like that, it almost feels like we should take some credit that they’re playing differently than how other people play Test cricket,” Duckett had said.
It isn’t just Rohit who found Duckett’s comment deplorable. Earlier, even former England captain Nasser Hussain had blasted the player for his remarks.
“He’s not learned from you. He’s learned from his upbringing, all the hard yards he had to put in growing up. If anything, lads, look at him and learn from him. I hope there’s a little bit of self-introspection going on. Otherwise, it becomes a cult – and, at times, Bazball and this regime has been described as such, where you cannot criticise within or externally,” Hussain had said on Sky Sports.
