Follow UsRishabh Pant couldn’t have found a worse time to register his first duck at home, with a three-ball duck against New Zealand in the second Test at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium. The left-hander walked in with India’s score reading 127/3 but returned to the dressing room without troubling the scorers.
It was a horrible mix-up from Pant and Virat Kohli, leading to a crucial run-out from New Zealand’s perspective. Kohli had knocked the ball to the short third-man region and took off for a quick single, but Pant had a slight hesitation and was miles away from his crease eventually. It was a clever field placement, too, from New Zealand, with a left-handed Santner fielding in the short third-man region, resulting in the run-out.
India went from 127/3 to 127/4, giving New Zealand a much better chance of winning a rare second Test against India and winning their first-ever Test series in India. For Pant, it was his third duck in his Test career after his 29-ball duck in Southampton way back during his maiden Test series against England.
The only other occasion the left-hander didn’t trouble the scorers was in 2022 against South Africa, when he registered a three-ball duck in Johannesburg. Ironically, India ended up losing both these Tests by a margin of 60 runs and seven wickets. It might well happen again, given that India are chasing quite a humungous score here in Pune, which would result in India's first home Test series loss since 2012 when they lost against England.
Only the fourth instance and the third Indian batter (top-seven) to be dismissed for a duck via run-out, after Cheteshwar Pujara (2017 & 18) and Rahul Dravid (2004).
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