“He is a very big part of our plans”: Rahul Dravid asserts confidence in Rishabh Pant ahead of T20 World Cup 2022

Indian coach Rahul Dravid has shown his trust and confidence on the spot of Rishabh Pant in India’s T20 World Cup squad.

The T20I series between India and South Africa ended in a draw, courtesy of the abandoned game in Bengaluru. South Africa won the initial two games, but India made a brilliant comeback in the series.

Rishabh Pant was made the captain of the side after the injury of KL Rahul, and all the eyes were on him. Pant’s captaincy did improve in the last two games, but he failed in the batting department. Pant managed to score just 58 runs in the series at an average of 14.50. The place of Rishabh Pant is severely criticized by many former cricketers.

Rahul Dravid confident on Rishabh Pant’s T20 World Cup spot

Indian coach Rahul Dravid has asserted his confidence in the place of Rishabh Pant in India’s ICC T20 World Cup plans. He said that Rishabh Pant is an integral part of India’s plans for the T20 World Cup side. Although, he admitted that Pant would have wanted to score more runs against South Africa.

“Personally, he would have liked to score a few more runs but it is not concerning him. Certainly, he is a very big part of our plans going ahead in next few months,” Dravid said during the post-match press conference in Bangalore.

Rahul Dravid said that he won’t be judging Rishabh Pant on the basis of just 2-3 matches. He said that an attacking brand of cricket is required in the middle-overs, and he reminded Rishabh’s strike-rate of above 158 in the IPL 2022 for Delhi Capitals.

“I think he had a pretty good IPL in terms of strike-rate even though it might not have looked good on averages. In IPL, he looked to move up a little bit (in terms of averages) and probably three years ago he was on those numbers. We are hoping that we can get those numbers from him at the international level,” Rahul Dravid said.

Rahul Dravid insists that a player can lose wickets in the process of playing aggressive shots, but Pant will remain an integral part of the team and a left-hander is important in the order as well.