Kamal Ghorui
Former South Africa cricketer Shaun Pollock believes Rishabh Pant’s comments after Lucknow Super Giants’ Super Over loss to Kolkata Knight Riders may have indirectly put the blame on the team management.After LSG lost to KKR in the Super Over, Pant said that having too many opinions during the game made decision-making difficult.The match had gone to a Super Over after Mohammed Shami hit a six off the last ball of the innings. But Sunil Narine then bowled a good Super Over for KKR and helped his team win.Two decisions of LSG captain Rishabh Pant came under heavy criticism — giving Digvesh Rathi the final over, where Rinku Singh hit four sixes in a row, and sending Nicholas Pooran in for the Super Over.After the match, Pant said, “Too many minds don’t make it easy on the ground.”Pollock said such a statement from the captain was not ideal because it sounded like he was pointing fingers at the management group.“It isn’t really good that it is coming from the captain because he is basically saying there are too many people giving me information and he is kind of under the bus-ing the management group that they have got,” Pollock said on Cricbuzz.
He also said it is difficult to judge the situation fully because outsiders do not know how decisions are made inside the LSG dressing room.“Maybe we don’t know how it works; that is the problem. You don’t know who has the final call, you don’t know who sits with him and gives him the understanding of what they feel, or who has the discussions with him,” Pollock added.Pant, however, also spoke about the need for the whole team to take responsibility after the defeat.At the post-match presentation, he said the team needed a short break to reset and deal with the pressure better.“I think we definitely need a break. I think we’re gonna refresh. There is always pressure, and it’s gonna be a pressure game always, but at the same time, we have to look for answers inside, not outside. And just keep it simple. We need to take accountability – every guy. Like, it can’t be about one or two guys. It has to be about the whole unit, and a lot of people will take accountability for that for sure,” Pant said.
