Premier Australia batsman Steve Smith hailed flamboyant India wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant and called him an “exceptional talent”. Pant played a monumental role in India’s historic three-wicket win in the Brisbane Test. The southpaw slammed unbeaten 89 runs and was awarded the Man of the Match for his exceptional innings.
With the win, India clinched the four-match series 2-1 and retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It was Australia’s first-ever defeat at the Gabba in 32 years.
After the series defeat, Smith claims Pant is an exceptional talent as he took on the game and played in his areas during last innings of the fourth Test.
“He (Pant) is an exceptional talent as we’ve seen, he played a pretty amazing innings on a day-five wicket. He took the game on, played in his areas,” Smith told cricket.com.au.
“We’ve seen in short-form cricket in particular how good he is and where he can hit the ball and that was a pretty special innings today.”
Rishabh Pant produced another scintillating performance in the fourth innings to prove why he is touted as the next big thing in Indian cricket. His knock included nine fours and a six as he stuck to his natural game in the high-pressure closing stages. At a moment in the last 10 overs, Team India almost needed to score run a ball to win the match and Pant changed his gears in total ease for an emphatic win.
Smith further backed the Australia bowling attack comprising Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon, as he claims that the bowlers worked really hard throughout the series.
“They worked really hard obviously and bowled lots of overs. Unfortunately, both in Sydney and here they weren’t able to finish the job for us but they’re all great bowlers.
“They work incredibly hard and hopefully they can back up in a few weeks’ time for us in (Australia’s Test tour of South) Africa and we can have some success over there,” he said.