Rishabh Pant memes took social media by storm after Team India put up a horror show against Australia on Day 2 of the third Test in Indore on Thursday.

Widely regarded as the best wicketkeeper-batter in Tests, Rishabh Pant has scored 2169 runs in 54 innings in the whites, including five centuries and ten half-centuries. He has a stunning strike rate of 73.10 and averages 43.48 in the five-day format.

In December, he powered India to a 2-0 whitewash of Bangladesh in the Test series in the neighboring country. In the process, Rishabh Pant joined a select band of Indian wicketkeepers, including former captain MS Dhoni to complete 4,000 runs in international cricket.

However, a near-fatal accident the left-handed wicketkeeper suffered in Uttarakhand in December put a break on his career. According to a prominent cricket website and former India captain Sourav Ganguly, he's set to miss the entire 2023 season.

The report said that Rishabh Pant will certainly not be available for the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the World Test Championship final in June.

All three ligaments in Rishabh Pant's knee suffered damage in the accident.  Two of those ligaments have already been reconstructed after surgeries at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital in Mumbai.

As a result, Rishabh Pant will remain sidelined for at least six months, throwing his selection for the ODI World Cup in October-November in limbo.

Recently, ex-India skipper Sourav Ganguly dropped a major update about Rishabh Pant's health, hinting the 25-year-old could have a long hiatus from the sport, possibly lasting more than a year.

“I spoke to him a couple of times. Obviously he is going through a tough period, through injuries and surgeries and I wish him well. In a year's time or may be in a couple of years' time, he will be back playing for India,” Sourav Ganguly said in an interaction news agency PTI.

Though the Rohit Sharma-led side won the first two Tests in Nagpur and Delhi comfortably against Australia, everybody felt Rishabh Pant's absence.

But he was thoroughly missed in the third Test, as the Indian cricket team failed to find a way past the Australian spinners, getting dismissed for 109 and 163, respectively, in their first and second essays.

After watching the pathetic performance of the home side at the Holkar Stadium in Indore, Team India supporters took to Twitter to mock them with hilarious Rishabh Pant memes.

https://twitter.com/smileandraja/status/1631277113612410880

 

Speaking about the contest in Madhya Pradesh, Australia took control of the proceedings on Day 2 after they earned a crucial 88-run lead over Rohit Sharma and his men in the first innings.

In response to India's timid 109, the Australians were all out for 197, with Ravindra Jadeja picking four wickets while Ravichandran Ashwin and Umesh Yadav snared three each.

The home side needed to put up a fight in the second essay if they had any chance of winning the game. But instead of learning from their mistakes on Day 1, the Indian cricket team again showed their weakness against quality spin bowling.

Australia's premier spinner Nathan Lyon who had looked threatening throughout the series, was the wrecker-in-chief, picking a remarkable eight-wicket haul to take the Kangaroos on the brink of a rare win in India.

Nathan Lyon, arguably the best off-spinner Australia has ever produced, outsmarted India's star-studded line-up with his guile, trajectory, and spin to grab a match-defining 8/64 on Thursday.

After stumps on Day 2, an ecstatic Nathan Lyon spoke about his tactics against Indian batters and how he achieved so much spin where the home team's spinners failed to do so.

“It doesn’t matter what wicket I’m playing on. If I can get somebody to defend, I’m pretty happy. That’s the nuts and bolts of my secret, to try and get guys defending me for long periods. That means I’m putting the balls in the right areas,” he said after the close of play.

“Saying that, I don’t mind if guys try and hit me. I have been hit for the most no. of sixes in Test history so I’m not afraid to be hit for a six (smiles). It’s a great challenge but I don't mind it either way but more challenging to get the guys defending,” Nathan Lyon pointed out.

“I know a lot of people see it as a negative. I see it as total opposite. I think it’s very attacking, you are bringing all modes of dismissal. Times have changed when you were able to bowl over the stumps and still get guys in line.”

“Yes, that may be the case every now and then but when you bowl that line, the good batters around the world they get outside the line straightaway. But when you come around the wicket with big spin, it brings in all modes of dismissal,” he explained.

“To be honest, I was pretty happy with the way I bowled in Nagpur. I understand the quality of cricketers we are coming up against. I know the challenges against these guys, but I was pretty happy with the way I bowled in Nagpur.”

“I was pretty pumped with Toddy Murphy (another offie) taking seven-for. Nothing has changed for me. It’s about trusting my stock ball and doing the basics right. It’s what I tell after every game,” Lyon concluded.

On the other hand, former Australia cricketers Michael Clarke and Matthew Hayden blasted the pitch for the state of affairs in Indore.

“What is this pitch we’re playing on,” Michael Clarke told Sky Sports Radio.

“For me, it’s the puff and dust that’s being picked up from either the quicks or the spinners. It shows it’s only going to get worse. It’s like a Day 3 pitch on Day 1 in India. You don’t want to see that. India could have been bowled out for 70,” he added.

“This is why I’ve got a problem with these conditions. There’s no way in the world that a spin bowler should come on in the sixth over,” Matthew Hayden said on Fox Sports.

“4.8 degrees, that’s massive turn. That’s the sort of turn you’d expect day three. You’ve got to give batters a chance… Day one, day two should be about batting,” he elaborated.

“It shouldn’t be a spin bowler’s paradise necessarily, it shouldn’t be keeping low and turning a mile on day one,” Matthew Hayden signed off.