New Delhi: On the one hand, whether it is forming an alliance in the middle of the pitch or representing the future of Indian cricket, Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill have been in the limelight during the recent England tour. Pant hit the century in both innings in the first Test, Gill scoring his personal then best Test score to shut doubts over the Indian batting after Kohli and Rohit. During the second Test of the series in Birmingham, Pant failed to capitalize on his innings but Gill grabbed the headlines by making a colossal 269, a record-breaking display. However, this time their stand was not as long as effective.
Gill and Pant have been playing as a synchronized pair on the field, a phrase that commonly goes to bowlers but is apt in their case. They have performed exceptionally well to rattle the English bats with their role as captain and vice-captain. The two joined forces late on Day 2 to mount pressure on Harry Brook who seemed to be stalling the game deliberately.
Harry Brook’s time wasting tactitcs
Brook tried his best to make sure that the 19th over of England, bowled by Ravindra Jadeja, was to be last of the day. To achieve that, he resorted to traditional time wasting methods. Having received the first delivery, he moved off to loosen his gloves — and once again on getting the third ball. Rishabh Pant did not like this deliberate time-wasting.
“Bowler is ready,” Pant told the umpire, who took note of it and advised Brook to take strike instead of wasting time. After facing the next ball, Brook went to the middle of the pitch to tap it.
“What is this? Every ball? He’s taking time to get ready every ball,” Pant yelled with his arms apart. The next ball was bowled by Jadeja and he defended. This happened to the despair of Brooj, Jadeja yet again manages to finish the over with one minute remaining before the scheduled end of play.
When the players changed ends, Indian cricket captain Shubman Gill moved to the umpire to complain against the intentional time-wasting strategies of Brook. “I can’t (physically) push the batter,” the umpire replied, trying to make Gill understand that they have already warned Brook.
Joe Root and Harry Brook were able to conclude the final over by Prasidh Krishna and the English team went into stumps at 77/3, however, still trailing the Indian team by a mammoth 510 runs.
