Gautam Gambhir blasted after Rishabh Pant's ‘brainfade’ shot; fans troll ‘tried to be travis head but ended…travis tail’

Memories of Sunil Gavaskar's famous ‘stupid, stupid, stupid’ rant from the Border-Gavaskar Trophy returned on Monday. This was triggered by Rishabh Pant playing a rash shot. He threw away his wicket on the third day against South Africa in the ongoing second Test in Guwahati.

India had just seen Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, and Dhruv Jurel all dismissed within three overs. A mature and composed innings was crucial from the 28-year-old Pant, who is the stand-in captain for this Test in the absence of regular skipper Shubman Gill.

However, the left-hander danced down the track to slog Marco Jansen. The ball instead took an edge to wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne. Pant even wasted a review before heading back to the pavilion in utter disbelief.

This catch helped Verreynne become the fifth South African to reach 100 dismissals in Tests. He joins Mark Boucher (553), Quinton de Kock (232), David Richardson (152), and John Waite (141).

Fans severely criticised Pant's dismissal on social media, blasting both the wicketkeeper-batter and head coach Gautam Gambhir.

“Rishabh Pant tried to be travis head but eventually ended up being Travis tail. Captain of Indian team ? Gautam Gambhir another disaster (sic),” wrote a user. The Travis Head reference stemmed from the fact that both Pant and the Australian batsman share a similar attacking approach in all formats.

Dale Steyn reacts to Rishabh Pant's dismissal

Pant's approach wasn't liked by former South African pacer Dale Steyn, who is currently working as a commentator in the ongoing series. “That is just a brainfade shot,” Steyn wrote on X. In the middle, Pant lasted only eight balls, for his seven runs with the help of a six.

In reply to South Africa's mammoth total, India are currently struggling at 174/7 at lunch as the home team suffered a batting collapse. Except for Yashasvi Jaiswal (58) and Washington Sundar (33 batting), none of the Indian batters could stand in front of Jansen (4/43) so far.

Currently, Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav are sharing an unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 52 runs off 141 balls. The home team still trail by 315 runs and needs 116 runs to avoid follow-on.