Batting coach Kotak defends Pant’s flamboyant batting

India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak praised the new skipper and his deputy, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant, for playing a vital role in India’s famous win at Edgbaston (Birmingham) against England in the second Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025. After having lost the first Test at Headingley where Pant had scored twin centuries, India played attacking cricket to deny England from chasing a total in the fourth innings.

India set England a gargantuan target of 608 runs thanks to Gill’s double century in the first innings and a 161-run knock in the second. England was skittled for 271 runs, giving India a 336-run win.

Kotak credited flamboyant wicket-keeper Pant’s risk-and-reward style of play and emphasised the importance of having players in the team who can shift the momentum and turn the tide.

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“Every team will have some aggressive players who are very good at breaking the opposition’s momentum. So, someone like Jaiswal, who plays the way he plays; someone like Rishabh,” said Kotak during India’s practice session at Lord’s ahead of the third Test.

“But that does not mean that he doesn’t think. He does think, he does take decisions and when it goes wrong, it looks bad. But when it goes right, people are happy saying, ‘Oh, what an entertaining innings that was.’ So any team, I would think that would have a couple of players who are a little different in a batting lineup than others,” he added.

The batting coach also dismissed the notion that Pant is only an in-the-moment player, a label often attributed to him due to his audacious shot selections.

“Rishabh actually talks a lot about what he does with bat, when he does, why he does it with me. He is someone who doesn’t like talking too much during his inning because he feels that that changes his mindset, and he takes the wrong decision,” Kotak added.

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Pant is currently the third-highest run-scorer in the series with 342 runs. During the Leeds Test, he also became only the second wicket-keeper batter in history to score centuries in both innings of a Test.

Among the Indian batters, he is only behind Shubman Gill, who has been in sensational form.

About Gill, he said, “I don’t think anything has changed because he is a captain. His mindset has shifted a bit and there are definitely technical changes, which I saw in Australia, series in India, and during our initial practice match here,” emphasised Kotak.

Lord’s to assist bowlers

Speaking about the Lord’s pitch, Kotak said, “The wicket is bit greener than what we saw in the last two games. However, we can only talk after they do the last cutting before match. And generally, at Lord’s, the scores of the first and second innings are comparatively low. So, we can expect that it will be helpful for bowlers. For batters, spending time on the wickets is the best friend you can have. The more time you spend on the wicket, the more you will adjust to it.”

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