SYDNEY: Hit on the helmet, then in the thigh, the left bicep sporting a nasty bruise, a blow to the groin leaving him gasping, Rishabh Pant tried to fight through it all. In the end though, he received a battering and fell after top-scoring with a 98-ball 40.
"I think this is the first time I've got hit so much but you know... in cricket, you can't plan anything," said Pant at close of play on Friday. "Everything happens for the first time at some point in your career and that was me today."
It was a day of blows -- to the mind and the body. The collective psyche of a nation was shaken as Rohit Sharma was dropped (and not rested as they would have you believe) for a decisive game. And then, as wicket after wicket fell to a relentless Australian attack, the body seemed to give up too. India were broken down, ball-by-ball, hour-by-hour, session-by-session on Day 1 of the fifth and final Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy. And that is honest truth that coach Gautam Gambhir demanded on the eve of the game.
As India struggled to reach 185 all out on a green top at the SCG, it often felt like we were watching a repeat of the previous matches in the series. KL Rahul hit a four-ball straight to the fielder at square leg, Yashasvi Jaiswal edged one to third slip off Boland, a batter (Gill this time) was dismissed in the last over before tea, Virat Kohli edged a delivery off the fifth stump line.
Nothing has changed and that should 'honestly' trouble Gambhir.
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