"It curbed his style of play" - Former India wicket-keeper questions Gautam Gambhir's message to Rishabh Pant in ENG vs IND 2025 1st Test 

Former India wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik said that head coach Gautam Gambhir's message to Rishabh Pant from the dressing room interfered with his momentum. The left-handed batter was cruising after reaching his hundred, but looked unsettled after being asked to tone it down, eventually leading to his dismissal in the first session of Day 2 at Headingley, Leeds.

Rishabh Pant was batting in his trademark fashion, putting pressure on the bowlers with both his attack and defence. He reached his ton off 146 deliveries, and continued to take on Ben Stokes and Shoaib Bashir as wickets tumbled at the other end. After Karun Nair's dismissal in the 105th over, the wicket-keeper batter only scored four runs off nine balls despite being in full flow.

His dismissal also reflected how indecisive he was regarding his approach following the message from the dressing room. Pant misjudged an incoming delivery from Josh Tongue from around the wicket, an angle that had been troubling him for a while.

He decided to leave the ball, which, to his surprise, came back in and struck him on the pads, trapping him LBW. Realising he made an error, an effort was made by him to bring his bat down, but it was way too late by then.

Dinesh Karthik opined that Gautam Gambhir should have been more careful in terms of how the message to Rishabh Pant was conveyed.

“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, and yet the feeling that a message was sent to tell him to calm down doesn't work for certain players, I guess,” said Dinesh Karthik on air (via Hindustan Times).

“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,” he added.

The flamboyant batter departed after scoring a well-made 134 runs off 178 deliveries, including 12 fours and six sixes. This marked his third hundred in England, following the ones he scored at The Oval and Edgbaston in 2018 and 2022, respectively.

Team India collapse after Rishabh Pant's dismissal to post 471 in the first innings

The Men in Blue were poised to breach the 500-run mark comfortably, but their ambitions were quashed after England launched a fightback with the ball. Shubman Gill's dismissal left India at 430-4, while the score read 453-6 after Rishabh Pant's wicket.

The Indian tail did not step up with much resistance as Josh Tongue skittled out the remaining wickets in no time. England have brought themselves back into the contest by reducing India to 471 all out, which was not considered a possibility midway through the first session.