How Ravi Shastri unleashed Rishabh Pant the batter during the historic Australia Test series: ‘You are boring me yaar, hit reverse’

Ravi Shastri’s man-management skills are often talked about in high regard, especially by the Indian players who played under him. One of them, Ravichandran Ashwin, recently pushed the former India coach to open up about how he got Rishabh Pant to perform at his best.

Narrating an incident dating back to Test series during India’s tour of Australia in 2020/21, Shastri recalled his conversation with the Indian keeper-batter.

“It was to Nathan Lyon in Sydney when he batted brilliantly and got out at 97. He slogged one up there, came back [to the dressing room] and was sitting. And then the second new ball was taken and Pujji [Cheteshwar Pujara] hit seven boundaries,” Shastri told Ashwin during the recent edition of ‘Kutti Stories with Ash’ on his YouTube.

“So, when I went into the loo, he was still sitting in the dressing room all alone with his pads on. I looked at him and said, Pujji is scoring all your runs. Seven he’s hit. Yes. It’s Pujji, he’s hit seven boundaries in half an hour,” Shastri said.

“Then I said, ‘You are boring me yaar, hit reverse. You are getting out like this only no, aur Khatarnak fashion mein out hoja [get out more bizarrely]. And he said, ‘Ye hui naa baat’,” he further added.

Pant’s antics in Sydney helped India draw the third Test as he added 148 runs for the fourth wicket alongside Cheteshwar Pujara.

The-then India coach, Shastri was then nudged by Ashwin on if he would’ve had a similar conversation with the other protagonist in that key partnership for India.

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“Their mindset is completely different from someone else. I can’t go to Pujji and tell him to hit a reverse sweep. I have to ask him to just carry on. And that he has shown on multiple tours,” Shastri reasoned.

“If I tell him (Pant) don’t play [that particular shot] it, that’s against his nature. He might play it even more. I told him I getting bored, you are getting out in the same fashion,” he added.

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