'Dhoni would be really proud of Pant for that stumping': Karthik lavishes massive praise on India WK for Nurul's wicket
India's veteran keeper Dinesh Karthik made a huge remark on Rishabh Pant's stumping in on Day 4 of the opening Test against Bangladesh.
Bangladesh put up a strong fight during Day 4 of the opening Test against India as they batted an entire day in the 513-run chase in Chattogram. Resuming their innings at 42/0, the hosts rode on contributions from Zakir Hasan who smashed his maiden Test century (100) and Najmul Hossain Shanto (67), as the duo forged a 124-run stand for the first wicket. India did make inroads during the second and third sessions of the day, however, leaving the hosts at 272/6 – still requiring 241 more runs to win the match.
India had a frustrating outing in the first session but Axar Patel (3/50) led the fightback for the visitors, as he picked important wickets of Yasir Ali, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Nurul Hasan. Nurul's was the final wicket to fall on Day 3, thanks to a brilliant stumping display from wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant. Many pointed out that the lightning-quick glove-work from Pant reminded them of former India captain MS Dhoni, and India's veteran keeper Dinesh Karthik also drew comparisons on the same.
Karthik stated that Dhoni would be “proud” of the stumping from Pant for Nurul Hasan's wicket.
“He idolizes MS Dhoni and Dhoni would be really proud of the way he did that stumping. The beauty about it is, when the ball is pitched closer, it can be hard to react faster. You get the feeling that the batsman is going to play the shot. But Pant was ready for the ball to miss the bat, and he was already bringing his hand towards the stump. That's why it was done at such a quick speed,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
"As a wicketkeeper, your action is to receive the ball whereas in this case, and why Dhoni was also special, he started predicting when he saw the ball. There was a chance that the ball was getting beaten, and they started bringing their hand the other way. That's whre you get the split second difference when it goes to the third umpire. It was a stumping where the batsman was on his way back. What made it special was Pant's awareness about the chance of the batsman being beaten, and bringing the gloves towards the stumps as the ball came through.
“That's why Rishabh Pant idolized MS Dhoni… because he enjoys him as a personality, and these are things he has learnt spending time with MS. This is one such skill keepers need to keep developing,” Karthik said.
