Pant looked fluent as he reached 28 off 37 balls after Ravindra Jadeja resumed India’s reply of overnight 164 for 5 and the two had almost made it through the first hour of play. At this point, Pant tried to beat Scott Boland from outside off to the leg side, but handed him a simple catch from the front edge into the deep third.

“I think before, when there were no fielders around, he tried those shots. That’s understandable because you’re taking advantage of a very good opportunity,” Gavaskar said during the lunch break at Star Sports. “That (the shot) was supposed to go on the leg side, that went on the offside side, that’s actually saying maybe there was a bit of bad luck there, but it was a terrible choice of a shot to play in that particular instance.” Point with two fielders down at deep square leg and at deep point.

Pant had also attempted an identical shot with the previous ball in the 56th over off Boland, but inside edged it towards his body as he lost his balance. On the next ball he hit only slightly better, hit the ground again but holed out to Nathan Lyon. India were 191 for 5 before his fall and were still 283 behind, although with Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar at the top they gained a good position during the day.

Pant scores many of his runs through unorthodox and attacking shots. Gavaskar pointed out that Pant should have acted more sensibly as there were two fielders in the deep waiting for that very shot.

“It just seems like he thinks that’s the only way he can score runs,” Gavaskar said. “So if he’s not going to be able to score runs in the usual way, just thinking about him going down the pitch and hitting the ball over the goal with a long-on, or if he just tries to play those shots, then that’s what it says in the test. “Then you have to be prepared for him to give you a few runs sometimes. If that’s the case, he can’t bat at No. 5. “

Gavaskar was seen on live commentary ABC Radio at the time of the dismissal and said Pant had “badly let India down” by “throwing away” his wicket.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” was Gavaskar’s immediate reaction. “You have two fielders there, and if you still do that, you missed the previous shot. And look where you got caught. They were caught at deep third man. That means throwing your wicket away.” Not in the situation India found themselves in. You can’t say that’s your natural game. This is a stupid bad decision!”