The way Keshav Maharaj ran towards his captain after Rishabh Pant was sent off in the fourth match of T20 between India and South Africa (IND vs SA), it was clear that it was planned. Maharaj placed the ball on the outside, which hit the outside edge of Pant’s bat and was caught off the third man.
Also in the first and second T20, Pant returned to the pavilion with similar balls. In the first T20, Enrique Norcia took control of Pant’s wicket in a wide delivery. At the same time, in the second T20, Keshav Maharaj walked Pant by placing the first ball of his streak on the outside. Overall, in three of the four matches in this series, Pant lost his wicket on open balls off the side.
Even before this, it has also been coming out the same way in IPL. In his 19 T20 innings this year, he has taken wickets in the wide open off the balls 10 times. Sunil Gavaskar has also pointed out this weakness of his. In the fourth T20, Gavaskar even said that starting the same way every time is not a good sign.
Rishabh Pant has so far scored 57 runs in 4 T20 matches against South Africa with a batting average of just 14.25. During this, his strike rate was also only 105.55. Even at IPL 2022, he couldn’t score a single half-century.
