When India wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant posted photos of walking albeit with crutches at his home earlier this month, millions of Indian cricket fans breathed a sigh of relief upon watching him standing for the first time since a car crash almost a couple of months ago.
Advertisement
Pant, a top-notch cricketer who is also seen as a captaincy material of the national team in the future, is expected to be away from the sport for a few months due to multiple injuries sustained during the accident.
Pant’s importance in the national team can be evaluated from the fact that it has required for the team management three different players to replace Pant across as many formats of international cricket.
Although the exact date of his recovery remains unknown, the swashbuckling wicket-keeper batter will surely miss Indian Premier League 2023. Pant, who leads Delhi Capitals in the biggest T20 league across the globe, has received immense support from the franchise with head coach Ricky Ponting publicly expressing a need of “having him around” in the dugout even if not in a playing capacity.
Rishabh Pant, who will miss IPL 2023, was once termed by Harsha Bhogle as “far better” Test player than T20 player
In spite of all that the 25-year old player has achieved in his professional career, there is no denying to the fact that he hasn’t done justice to his T20 potential. It, in fact, remains an unsolved mystery as to why a hard-hitting batter such as himself has succeeded more in Test matches than T20s.
Illustrious cricket broadcaster Harsha Bhogle, during his appearance in The Grade Cricketer Podcast last year, had emphasized on the same while terming Pant to be a “far better” Test player than a T20 player. One of the reasons for Bhogle to come to this conclusion was a significant improvement in Pant’s wicket-keeping especially against the Indian spinners in home Tests.
“We always thought he was a bit of a flapper behind the stumps but his keeping to spin in turning tracks in India has improved beyond recognition. He has captaincy ambitions, but, I still think he’s a far better Test player than a T20 player,” Bhogle had said on The Grade Cricketer.
To give grounds for his statement, Bhogle provided the example of former India batter Virender Sehwag predicting that veteran Australia batter David Warner would be a better Test batter than a T20 batter because of a wide range of shots. It was during their Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) days over a decade ago when Sehwag had talked about Warner having it in him to convert all his T20 shots into boundaries in Test cricket.
ALSO READ: Rishabh Pant desirous of opening in T20Is
Bhogle, who believes that Pant is a victim of expectations in T20s mainly because of his playing style, also talked about how Sehwag had once said on a Cricbuzz show about Pant needing to finalize a T20 role for himself. Knowing Pant’s capability of wearing several hats, Sehwag wanted him to not remain a jack of all trades and master of none as far as his T20 batting is concerned.
