On air during the first England-India Test, former India international Dinesh Karthik questioned whether a dressing room message from head coach Gautam Gambhir contributed to Rishabh Pant's dismissal in the first innings.
India had dominated proceedings on day one after being put in to bat. Yashasvi Jaiswal and new Test captain Shubman Gill both scored centuries as they went to stumps on 359-3.
Read more: Yashasvi Jaiswal underlines status as heir to Sachin's crown of pure batsmanship
Gill began day two in the company of wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, who scored his seventh Test ton. They took India's score past the 400-run mark before Gill and next batter Karun Nair fell in quick succession to leave India five down.
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In the penultimate over before the lunch break, Pant himself fell for 134 in rather curious fashion. Facing Josh Tongue who was operating from around the wicket, he appeared to try leaving the ball, before making a half-hearted attempt to play. He missed, and was rapped on the pad – trapped lbw.
Dinesh Karthik: The message sent to Pant curbed his style of play
In the morning session, Pant had played in his naturally flamboyant style, adding 69 (75) to his overnight score of 65, before the wicket. Just minutes before he fell, a message had been passed on to him from the dressing room following Nair's dismissal.
On commentary after Pant was dismissed, Karthik noted: “Also very interesting, when a message was sent out to Rishabh Pant, it curbed his style of play. He was just very carefree with his stroke making... I get the feeling that a message was sent to tell him to calm down [which] doesn't work for certain players, I guess.
“As a coach, it's completely understandable when you want to get a message across to the batter. But over time, you realise, for certain players, how you send that message becomes very important, what is the tone, what is the language used that gets the best out of the batter.
“Maybe with Rishabh Pant, it needs to be a different way in which you get things done.”
There had been suggestions of a similar message being sent to Pant, between knocks, during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy last December. In the first innings in Melbourne, his mis-timed paddle/scoop resulted in his being caught at third, prompting the now-infamous "stupid, stupid, stupid" comment from Sunil Gavaskar. In his next outing, Pant played an uncharacteristically reserved innings of 30 off 104 balls as India appeared to be playing for a draw. They ended up losing by 184 runs.
In this match, Pant's dismissal left India 453-6, before they were eventually bowled out for 471. Jasprit Bumrah then struck in the first over of England's innings to remove Zak Crawley.
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