NEW DELHI: India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant explained that he adopted a restrained approach on the opening day of the fifth Test against Australia due to the challenging nature of the SCG pitch, which prevented him from playing his usual aggressive game.
Pant, who faced criticism for his reckless batting in the previous Test at Melbourne, scored a patient 40 off 98 balls in India’s total of 185 all out on Friday.
“In this innings, I wasn’t in frame of mind where I felt I could take charge of the game looking at nature of the wicket,” Pant said during the post-day press conference.
“Sometimes you have to play secure cricket as there were occasions where I could have taken 50-50 chances but didn’t,” he added.
The left-hander also noted that he is evolving as a batter, striving to strike a balance between defence and aggression.
“You want to bat the way that comes naturally to you but keep evolving and trying to keep a balance between attack and defence,” he said.
Pant acknowledged the mental challenges of batting during a rough patch.
“When you are not doing well you tend to overthink,” he admitted.
Debutant Australian all-rounder Beau Webster shared Pant’s assessment of the pitch.
“They (India batters) decided to knuckle down and made us bowl lot of overs. I am not sure what a good score on this track but we would have batted first had we won the toss,” Webster said.
