I had a good, normal conversation with Bonnie Paine, reveals Rishabh Pant

Everyone remembers the witty banter between the Indian wicketkeeper and the Australian captain during India’s tour Down Under last year. It all started during the Boxing day Test match, at the MCG, when on Day 4 Rishabh Pant welcomed the Aussie skipper Tim Paine to the crease with some light-hearted banter calling him a ‘temporary captain’. It went on and advanced into a series of exchanges and the 21-year-old Pant earned the ‘babysitter’ tag.

The tag of babysitter developed during the third Test when the Aussie captain and keeper Tim Paine sensed an opportunity and tried to unsettle the newcomer. He was recorded saying: “Tell you what big MS is back in the one-day squad. Should get this bloke down to Hurricanes.. They need a batter. Fancy that extend you Aussie holiday, beautiful town Hobart too… get him a water front apartment. Have him over for dinner. Do you babysit? I can take my wife to the movies while you watch the kids.”

Pant retorted to this with the ‘temporary captain’ remark in the next innings and carried on the banter by telling Ravindra Jadeja that Paine only knows how to talk. Here’s how it went: “We have got a special guest here. Have you heard the word temporary captain ever. You [Jadeja] don’t need anything to get him out. Come on lads. He loves to talk, that’s the only thing he can do. Only talking talking,” Pant sledged from behind the stumps which was picked up by the stump mic and made this amazing set of exchanges pretty famous.

Pant speaks up about his interaction with Mrs. Paine

The widely popular incident garnered even more attention after Bonnie Paine, wife of the Aussie skipper, posted a picture on Instagram where Pant was holding one of her kids and she was holding the other.  No wonder the picture became viral immediately. Later on, it was unveiled that Pant had met Bonnie when the Australian Prime Minister had invited both the teams to his residence before the fourth Test in Sydney.

The Delhi Capitals recruit, Rishabh Pant has now revealed what the actual conversation was between him and Bonnie Paine. Pant said that contrary to common speculations, his interaction with Bonnie was just a regular one. “It was a good, normal interaction. There was a dinner at the (Australian) Prime Minister’s House. She posted the picture over there and it went viral because me and Tim Paine were having some banter during the match, but we were just playing cricket, hard Test cricket. That’s all,” he told Sportstar.

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