Indian cricket team wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant decided to poke fun at the India A players on Day 4 of the Duleep Trophy encounter in Bengaluru. Pant, who was part of the India B team, sneaked into the opposition side’s huddle while skipper Shubman Gill was giving his pre-match speech. In a video posted by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on X (formerly called Twitter), Pant was seen stealthily joining the huddle and listening to the speech. While the India A players were quite unfazed by Pant’s presence, fast bowler Avesh Khan decided to have a conversation with Pant after the speech ended.

India B player Rishabh Pant joined India A huddle in the morning to understand the opponent’s plan.pic.twitter.com/QZHkIpRdFL

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) September 8, 2024

While some of the social media users found the whole incident quite funny, there were some who were not impressed and pointed out that such acts hurt the image of a tournament like the Duleep Trophy.

Such videos will degrade authenticity of duleep trophy

Its like gali mohhale ki league ho

— Shah (@ipagshah00) September 8, 2024

Rishabh Pant returned to the Test side after nearly 20 months as India announced their 16-man squad for the opening match of the two-Test series against Bangladesh starting September 19.

thats funny

— Nattamai(@yoursme1122) September 8, 2024

Virat Kohli also made a comeback having missed the five-Test series against England at home earlier this year for having taken a break for the birth of his second child.

While fast bowler Mohammed Shami remains on a comeback trail and was not included in the squad, uncapped left-arm Uttar Pradesh fast bowler Yash Dayal received his maiden Test call-up.

India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who was last seen in national colours during the T20 World Cup, returned to the squad and he is expected to play a couple of more Tests against New Zealand in October-November, before the team flies out to Australia for a five-Test series.

Bumrah is perhaps the only player apart from Kohli and skipper Rohit Sharma to have been given freedom to choose as per the workload requirement and how his body responds, according to sources.

Having played in the second and final Test against Bangladesh at Mirpur from December 22-25, 2022, Pant had met a road accident a few days later on December 30 and made his return to top flight cricket only in IPL this year.

The 26-year-old swashbuckling wicketkeeper-batter returned to the national side in their title-winning campaign in the T20 World Cup.

Shami failed to make it to the Test side even though chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar had earlier expressed that the right-arm seamer was targeting a return in the first Test against Bangladesh.

Dayal, who was once smashed for five consecutive sixes by Rinku Singh in an IPL match, has had a remarkable redemption with his India call-up.

(With PTI inputs)