'Arrogant'- Netizens criticize Rishabh Pant on his 'white-ball' statement to Harsha Bhogle

Shikhar Dhawan-led team India got bundled out in the first innings for 219 against hosts New Zealand at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch. Apart from the performances from Shreyas Iyer and Washington Sundar, the rest of the batting unit just failed to rise to the occasion for the side.

Among them was Rishabh Pant, who has been at the receiving end of a lot of criticism for his performance. The southpaw could only manage to score 10 runs from 16 balls before getting dismissed by Daryl Mitchell. However, prior to the match, one of the incidents that garnered attention was that of Pant's response to commentator Harsha Bhogle's question.

The commentator had drawn parallels to India great Virender Sehwag and opined that his red-ball records are better than the other two formats. All hell broke loose when the keeper-batter did not hold back with a rather befitting response.

"Sir, the record is just a number. My white-ball numbers are not that bad okay. Comparison does not make sense right now, I am just 24-25 years age of age. If you want to do the comparison, you can maybe do it when I am 30-32. Before that, the comparison does not make sense to me,” told Pant on Prime Video prior to the contest.

His response to Bhogle has stunned many fans as they expressed that the player was rather ‘arrogant’ and that his performances of late have not reflected well on the pitch. Moreover, many fans have also questioned the exclusion of Sanju Samson, who has been in fine touch with the bat recently.

As the third and final ODI yielded no result, this essentially meant that hosts New Zealand clinched the series 1-0. The Men in Blue management will need to get back to the drawing boards and ideate well in terms of their playing XI selection as the road to the ICC 2023 Cricket World Cup has begun. Team India take their next assignment against Bangladesh in the Test and ODI series scheduled to commence in December.

Here is how Twitter reacted to Rishabh Pant's 'white-ball' remark-