"Uninstalled WhatsApp and turned off phone.." How Rishabh Pant punished himself after throwing wicket in MCG test vs AUS in 2024

Rishabh Pant slammed two centuries in the first test against England.

Indian wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant delivered a marvellous batting show in the first test of the ongoing five-match series against England at Headingley, Leeds. The left-handed batsman slammed centuries in both innings to shatter a few batting records. However, his knocks went in vain as India eventually lost the match by five wickets.

Rishabh Pant so far has shown a stunning batting form in the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025 between England and India. However, this was not the case in the previous Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 against Australia. Pant struggled with his batting during the five-match series, scoring 225 runs across nine innings at an average of 28.33.

During the fourth test in Melbourne, Rishabh Pant lost his wicket while trying to play a ramp shot. His reckless batting approach irritated commentator Sunil Gavaskar, who slammed him during commentary. Gavaskar’s “stupid, stupid, stupid” rant went viral on social media.

Rishabh Pant underwent intense training sessions after Melbourne test

During a chat with Times of India, Soham Desai, former strength and conditioning coach of the Indian Cricket Team, revealed how Risbabh Pant underwent hardcore training sessions after his poor show in the Melbourne test. Desai revealed that the Indian wicket-keeper didn’t care about fatigue and hit the gym whenever he was free. Reportedly, Pant also uninstalled WhatsApp from his phone and turned it off too.

“He did the most intense sessions day in and day out. He dragged me into the gym whenever he was free. He didn’t care about fatigue or work-loaded programmes. All he said was he needed to keep working on himself. On the day of the final, he came to me with some kind of guilt in his mind and asked if he could take the day off. I said it was high time that he did,” Desai said.

“Pant has so much reserve that he will be fine for at least a year without having to do anything extraordinary. That’s why you see him moving around so well despite scoring two hundreds and keeping wickets for so long in the Headingley Test,” he added.

Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant became the first Indian batsman to score twin centuries in a test match in England during the Headingley test. He also surpassed MS Dhoni’s record for most test centuries by an Indian wicket-keeper batter with his tons in the Leeds test.

Meanwhile, India and England will clash in the second test, beginning from July 2 at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Ben Stokes & Co. lead the five-match series 1-0.

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