Banter related to the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction between India’s Rishabh Pant and Australian spinner Nathan Lyon was caught on stump microphone during day one of the first Border Gavaskar Trophy Test in Perth, where the latter made a cheeky enquiry while passing the Indian wicketkeeper who responded with a two-word answer.
FOLLOW LIVE: 1st Test, Day 1
Pant, who is expected to trigger a bidding war at the two-day auction in Jeddah on November 24-25, was not retained by his franchise, the Delhi Capitals, and will now go into the auction pool.
As the auction dates are clashing with the ongoing Perth Test, Lyon quietly slipped in a question to probably disturb Pant’s focus while he was trying to do a repair job for India, who suffered a top-order collapse and later folded up for just 150.
“Where we’re going in the auction?” Lyon asked Pant.
Stepping aside, Pant replied: “No idea.”
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Pant looked good in his knock on Friday, though he was dropped on 25 by Pat Cummins, but couldn’t go past 37 after adding 48 runs for the fourth wicket with debutant Nitish Reddy, who top-scored in India’s sorry effort in the first innings.
With 6 fours and a six in his 59-ball back, Reddy scored an impressive 41 runs. KL Rahul was the only other Indian batsman to score in double figures, making 26 during his 74-ball stay.
India were bowled out for 150 at the stroke of tea, as Josh Hazlewood led the bowling figures for Australia with his 4 for 29. Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Marsh took two wickets each.
