India captain Rohit Sharma took a humorous dig at Ben Duckett during the pre-match press conference ahead of the fifth India-England Test in Dharamshala today (March 6).
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Earlier in the series, Duckett had argued that Yashasvi Jaiswal’s attacking style of play which fetched him two back-to-back double hundreds in the second and the third Test, was influenced by Bazball.
“When you see players from the opposition playing like that, it almost feels like we should take some credit that they’re playing differently than how other people play Test cricket,” Duckett said after Jaiswal’s double century in Rajkot.
However, Rohit came up with a response to Duckett’s comments during the pre-match conference in Dharamshala today (March 6). He sarcastically said that Duckett must have not seen Rishabh Pant bat before.
“There was a guy named Rishabh Pant in our team, probably Ben Duckett hasn’t seen him playing” Rohit said drawing laughter from the assembled media in the room.
Pant, who has been out of action for more than a year after suffering serious injuries in a car accident, has a strike of 73.63 in Test cricket and is known for his aggressive brand of batting and unorthodox shot making.
"There was a guy called Rishabh Pant in our team, probably Ben Duckett hasn't seen him play." 😂
Rohit Sharma and press-conferences. #INDvsENG pic.twitter.com/NtIIIRNJUe
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) March 6, 2024
Conversations around this series were heavily based around England’s approach to Test cricket, even before they arrived in India. While the scoreline says the series is 3-1 in India’s favour currently, England have competed in all four games, something which Rohit acknowledged in his press conference. However, he also said that he still doesn’t understand the term ‘Bazball’ and what it means.
“I just don’t know what Bazball means. I haven’t seen any wild swinging from anyone. England have played better cricket than they were here last time. But I still don’t know what Bazball means,” Rohit said.
Duckett, whom Rohit targeted in his comment, has had a good series so far, having scored 314 runs at 39.2 with a strike rate of 93.2. He is currently the fourth-highest run-scorer in this series and his strike rate is the best among all batters.
Jaiswal, on the other hand, has broken several records, amassing 655 runs from four games at a scarcely believable average of 93.57 and a strike rate of 78.63.
