After KS Bharat dropped Travis Head, fans dearly missed Rishabh Pant (Twitter image)
KS Bharat dropped an easy catch of Travis Head which led to a strong reaction from Indian fans as they missed Rishabh Pant
Team India wicketkeeper batter KS Bharat’s performances have been under the scanner and the youngster dropped a dolly to give a lifeline to Travis Head on Day 1 of the fourth Test between India and Australia in Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium.
Ever since Rishabh Pant had the horrible car crash earlier last year, the wicketkeeping position has opened up and while Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul have chipped in with wicketkeeping duties in limited overs cricket, Bharat has been preferred during the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023.
Ahead of the fourth Test, there had been a lot of speculation regarding Ishan Kishan replacing Bharat in the team, although skipper Rohit Sharma has continued to back the 29-year-old.
It was a nervy start for Bharat during the fourth Test, he missed several byes and dropped an easy catch which gave Australia a big lifeline.
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After Steve Smith won the toss and opted to bat first, the ball did appear to move around when Indian pacers started to bowl. Bharat failed to judge the flight of the ball due to the late movement in the air and he failed to complete the catch after the ball took a healthy edge off Head’s bat.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma stood beside the Andhra-born keeper and his reaction perhaps summed up the woes.
It’s not easy filling in the boots of Pant, and thus fans took to Twitter to express their disappointment. Some fans shared hilarious memes and others said they missed Rishabh Pant after seeing Bharat’s shaky form.
Check how fans reacted:
KS Bharat is neither your keeper batsman nor batsman keeper. India dearly missing Rishabh Pant #INDvAUS— Krishna (@krishnamroy) March 9, 2023
KS bharat drop here. You can see he takes a step to the legside. (Second photo) So already he is unbalanced, and then he doesn’t quiet get to the ball, he reaches out (last photo) very tough to take a opposite step then come back in. Technical error #INDvsAUST Test #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/7pwSdIPUKu— lucas (@LucasR32sky) March 9, 2023
K in KS Bharat stands for Kamran today— Udit (@udit_buch) March 9, 2023
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Thankfully the dropped catch didn’t haunt the Indian team as Ravichandran Ashwin removed Head shortly afterwards, to break the opening partnership at 61 runs.
Head scored 32 runs when Ashwin got him to give away an easy catch to Ravindra Jadeja. Not long after, Mohammed Shami also joined the bandwagon as he removed Marnus Labuschagne and the Aussies reach 75/2 at Lunch on Day 1.
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