Lucknow Super Giants takes dig at Sunil Gavaskar over ‘stupid’ comment on Rishabh Pant: ‘It pays to be…’

Days after legendary Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar burst out his anger and minced no words for Rishabh Pant after the India wicketkeeper-batter threw away his wicket on Day 3 of the fourth Test against Australia in Melbourne, Lucknow Super Giants took a dig at the Gavaskar.

On 28 December, Pant was batting at 28 in the fourth Test against Australia at Melbourne and played some beautiful cricketing shots on his way. But, suddenly he decided to play a big shot against Scott Boland and failed to connect the ball properly, which resulted getting caught by Nathan Lyon at third man. This was Australia's first wicket of the day.

Following this, Gavaskar, who was commentating for the game, lost his cool on Pant. “Stupid, stupid, stupid," Gavaskar said on-air while commentating for ABC Sport.

"You’ve got two fielders there, and you still go for that. You missed the previous shot. And look where you have been caught. You have been caught at deep third man," he added.

“That is throwing away your wicket. Not in the situation that India was in, you have to understand the situation as well. You cannot say that’s your natural game. I’m sorry. That’s not your natural game. That is a stupid shot. That is letting your team down badly! He should not be going in that dressing room! He should be going in the other dressing room,” concluded Gavaskar.

LSG reaction:

With Pant coming strong at Sydney scoring 61 runs off 33 deliveries, that included 6 boundaries and 4 sixes, India was able to finish DAY 2 at 141/6. The southpaw was the highest scorer of day for India. Pant even scored 40 important runs for India in the first innings at Sydney Test.

This led Lucknow Super Giants to take a swipe at Sunil Gavaskar, as they took to Instagram and called Pant 'Genius' this. The IPL franchise captioned the post, “Sometimes, it pays to be s̶t̶u̶p̶i̶d̶ brave.”

Recently at the IPL Auction 2025, Pant became the most expensive player to be sold at the bidding event as he got sold for a whopping ₹27 crore to LSG.

Sachin Tendulkar lauds Pant:

After Pant's brilliant performance, the 'God of Cricket' Sachin Tendulkar took to X and lauded him, saying, “On a wicket where majority of the batters have batted at a SR of 50 or less, @RishabhPant17's knock with a SR of 184 is truly remarkable. He has rattled Australia from ball one. It is always entertaining to watch him bat. What an impactful innings!”

India vs Australia, 5th Test:

In the 5th Test at Sydney, India have scored 141/6 in 32 overs on DAY 2 in their second innings, and have a lead of 145 runs.

Earlier, Australia were all out at 181 runs in their first innings while chasing India's 185 runs.