Nagpur: India came back strongly from their first match defeat at the hands of Bangladesh to win the three-match T20I series 2-1, but there was no respite for stumper Rishabh Pant as the jeers turned into catcalls for his gaffes behind the stumps, especially with the Decision Review System (DRS).
Pant, who was under the scanner for his wrong DRS calls in the first rubber, made similar mistakes Sunday even as India won the tie by 30 runs, largely due to Deepak Chahar’s exploits with the ball.
During Bangladesh’s chase of 174, pacer Khaleel Ahmed bowled a shortish delivery to Mohammad Naim and Pant launched an appeal for caught behind. He even convinced stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma to seek a review only for replays to show that the ball was missing the bat in a big way.
There were chants of ‘Dhoni, Dhoni’, the former India captain known to call it right almost every time, as social media also lashed out at Pant’s repeated failures.
“The DRS would never fail if captain always do the opposite of Pant’s opinion,” wrote a Twitter user.
“DRS stands for – Don’t ask Rishabh System,” wrote another enthusiast drawing attention for his cheeky comment.
“Lesson for Rohit Sharma: when pant calls for DRS,don’t take it,” read another comment.
Rohit, though, had backed young Pant ahead of the third T20I.
“You know there is a lot of talk happening about Pant every day, every minute. I just feel that he needs to be allowed to do what he wants to do on the field. I would request everyone to keep their eyes away from Pant for a while.
“He is a fearless cricketer and we (team management) want him to have that freedom. And if you guys take your eyes off him for sometime, it will allow him to perform even better.”
The two teams will now lock horns in the two-Test series, the second of which will be a historic Day-Night affair between the two Asian teams.
IANS
