Sydney: It was not at all surprising that Rishabh Pant bulldozed the Australian attack with his stroke-play in the second innings but his ultra-defensive approach on the opening day indeed was, Australia head coach Andrew McDonald said on Saturday.
Pant had laboured to 40 off 98 balls, taking multiple blows on his body during his 149-minute stay on the wicket. Pant had said that he was not in a frame of mind to attack.
Pant, though, changed the gears effortlessly in the second innings, hitting Mitchell Starc for two massive sixes. Scott Boland and Beau Webster were not spared either as they too were lofted for a six each.
“First of all, it’s not surprising, the way he plays. We were in fact a little bit surprised in the first innings, the way he went about his work. He’s got an incredible ability to put pressure back on to bowlers,” McDonald said, doffing his hat to India’s biggest match-winner in Test cricket in recent years.
However, Australia didn’t allow Pant to completely walk away as Pat Cummins dismissed him just when things looked like getting out of hand.
“We’re planning for that though, we’ll plan leading into the summer. We bounced in and out of a few plans there and clearly kept taking on the boundary riders and was getting away with it and no, it was an innings that you would say was right for that time.”
