Rishabh Pant has found himself on the firing line for his poor wicket-keeping skills in the third test against Australia in Sydney. The Delhi boy dropped two catches in the first innings, giving Will Pucovski lifelines on the latter’s debut in international cricket. In the last ball of the 22nd over of the opening day’s play, Pant couldn’t hold on to a sharp chance off Ravi Ashwin’s bowling. Ashwin’s good-length delivery kept straight and took Pucovski’s outside edge. But to India’s dismay, Pant dropped the catch. Then three overs later, he dropped an even easier chance, this time off fast bowler Mohammed Siraj. In the last ball of the 26th over, Pucovski mistimed a pull shot off a bouncer and got a glove.
Pant leapt and caught hold of the ball, but it went to ground on the second attempt. The soft signal on the field was ‘out’, but it had to be reversed. Soon Twitter users lashed out at the youngster for his poor wicketkeeping skills and cheating Even in the past, Pant had to face the wrath of the netizens for his glovework. Speaking about the game, Pucovski made his Test debut after being in line for it ahead of the first Test before a concussion ruled him out of the first two games. Warner's return to Test cricket was cut short by Siraj who made the Australian opener drive away from his body at a wide delivery and edge it to Cheteshwar Pujara at slip. The first session on Day One was affected by rain as only 7.1 overs of play was possible before multiple rain interruptions meant that early lunch had to be taken.
