Anil Kumble bats for Rishabh Pant’s inclusion: The legendary spinner was vocal about the wicket-keeper batsman playing across formats.
While the Indian team management is supposed to have asserted on the Indian squad for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, there is no hiding to the fact that a couple of spots are still under the clouds. Not that the selectors haven’t laid emphasis on the same, but are yet to confirm the same.
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One of the major points to ponder about is regarding the second wicket-keeper batsman and whether to include another batsman or a specialist fast bowler. In a recent interview with Cricket Next, former India captain Anil Kumble opined about the same.
Talking about the second wicket-keeper’s spot, Kumble didn’t shy away from saying that wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant should be included into the squad without a secon thought. Admitting that the 21-year old cricketer hasn’t done well in limited-overs cricket, Kumble believed that he will bring the confidence from his recent Test performances.
“I feel Rishabh Pant is someone you need to test even in the one-day format. I know he played a few matches and he didn’t perform but that’s in the past. He’s done really well in Test match cricket with those hundreds and that’ll give him a lot of confidence,” Kumble was quoted as saying.
Citing Pant to be the future of the Indian batting, Kumble expressed his urge of watching the southpaw in the ODI side soon.
“He’s back in the T20I squad and I’m sure he’ll be a different player. So, he needs to be looked at in this format as well because he’s going to be the future. So it’s important that you bring him in at some point in time,” Kumble added.
Kumble also passed a verdict on whether he would include a fast bowling all-rounder or a third spinner. “The challenge will be whether you go with [Ravindra] Jadeja as your back up spinner or a [Vijay] Shankar as your other seam bowling all-rounder who can bat. If I have to pick today, like you said, yeah you go with experience, you’d probably pick Jadeja,” Kumble further added.
One of the major reasons behind India’s success in the last year or so is the wrist-spinner-duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. The pair has successfully deceived even the best of batsmen in the middle-order in the recent times.
Himself a spinner, Kumble claimed the pair’s performance to be ‘phenomenal’ and added that them picking wickets in the middle-overs puts a lot of pressure on the opposition batsmen.
“I think the average number of wickets they’ve picked up is 4 to 5 in a match when they’ve played together. So, that’s phenomenal and that’s what has given India these results over the last couple of years because they’ve been able to pick wickets in the middle overs and that’s what has put pressure on the opposition batsmen,” Kumble concluded.
