Rishabh Pant has widely been touted as the possible successor to MS Dhoni and with India opting for the youngster in the first Test encounter against Australia, there was extra scrutiny on his performance.

The one thing that was quite clear was the difference between his approach and that of Dhoni’s. While Dhoni was a calm and composed customer on the field with no many altercations with the oppositions, Pant kept sledging the hosts on Day 2 of the encounter with possibly the best one coming against Usman Khawaja.

With Australia losing wickets in regular intervals, Ravichandran Ashwin was looking to dismiss Khawaja to put India in the driver’s seat and Pant was heard shouting “Not everyone is Pujara here, lads” on the stumps mic.

India finished the opening day at 250-9, on the back of a battling 123 from Cheteshwar Pujara, and they did not add to the total on Friday.

Travis Head scored an unbeaten half-century on his home debut to give Australia hope of reeling in India’s first innings lead at the close of day two of the first test on Friday.

Australia were 191 for seven, with Head 61 not out and tail-ender Mitchell Starc on eight, still 59 runs short of India’s modest total of 250 after another baking hot day at Adelaide Oval.

(With agency inputs)

First Published: Dec 07, 2018 13:20 IST