Gautam Gambhir blamed for Rishabh Pant's brainfade dismissal for 134: 'When a message is sent, what is the tone?'

Rishabh Pant enthralled the Headingley crowd as he registered a spellbinding century against England in the first Test of the five-match series on Saturday. The left-handed batter brought out the somersault celebration upon achieving the milestone, much to the delight of the jam-packed crowd in Leeds. With this ton, Rishabh Pant also went past MS Dhoni to have the most number of centuries for an Indian wicketkeeper-batter. Pant was eventually dismissed for 134 by Josh Tongue as the left-handed youngster had a brain fade moment. Dinesh Karthik put India head coach Gautam Gambhir under the scanner for possibly sending the wrong message to Rishabh Pant(Action Images via Reuters)

Former India wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik, who was on air for Sky Sports at the time, put head coach Gautam Gambhir under the scanner for possibly sending a wrong message to Pant in the middle. He hinted that the 27-year-old was perhaps told to change his gameplay after the loss of Shubman Gill and Karun Nair.

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On the second ball of the 108th over, Josh Tongue got the ball to curve back in late. Pant offered no shot, and the ball ended up hitting him just around the knee roll. The replays showed the ball smashing the middle and leg stump.

Also Read: Rishabh Pant vrooms past MS Dhoni's India record with scintillating century

“Also very interesting, when a message was sent out to Rishabh Pant, it curbed his style of play. He was just very carefree with his stroke making, and yet the feeling that a message was sent to tell him to calm down doesn't work for certain players, I guess,” said Dinesh Karthik on air.

“As a coach, it's completely understandable when you want to get a message across to the batter. But over time, you realise, for certain players, how you send that message becomes very important, what is the tone, what is the language used that gets the best out of the batter,” he added.

‘Way with Rishabh Pant needs to be different’

Dinesh Karthik also said that Gambhir needs to realise that his ways need to be different with Rishabh Pant to get the best out of him.

“Maybe with Rishabh Pant, it needs to be a different way in which you get things done,” said Karthik.

India squandered the advantage in the first session on Day 2 as the side lost four wickets in the last half an hour. Shubman Gill (147), Karun Nair (0), Rishabh Pant (134) and Shardul Thakur (1) all lost their wickets.

India were eventually bundled out for 471. Jaiswal, Gill and Pant were the top performers as the trio scored tons for the visitors. For England, Josh Tongue and Ben Stokes scalped four wickets each. India lost their final seven wickets for 41 runs.

Earlier, England captain Stokes won the toss and opted to bowl first in Headingley.

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