Sourav Ganguly on Rishabh Pant: Former Indian captain was vocal regarding the Indian wicket-keeper learning from the Indian captain.
Advertisement
Post persisting with Dinesh Karthik during the T20I home series against Windies, the Indian team management decided to hand over the keeping duties to wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant. While there wasn’t much wrong done by Pant in that aspect, his poor form with the bat in this format has raised questions.
While India didn’t get to bat in the second encounter at Melbourne, Pant missed a couple of opportunities in Brisbane and Sydney to seal the chase for India. In two innings down under, Pant scored 20 runs at an average of 10 and a strike rate of 117.64. Both the times, he became a victim of poor shot selection than getting out on a brilliant delivery.
Overall, in the 10 T20Is that Pant has played so far, he has scored 157 runs at an average of 19.62 and a strike rate of 117.16. For someone who entered the scenario with the reputation of being a dasher, the 21-year old cricketer hasn’t stood tall at the highest level till now, at least in this format.
While Pant will be India’s first-choice wicket-keeper in the Test series, he would be looking to make amends in the shortest format as well.
In his column for Times of India, former India captain Sourav Ganguly called Pant an ‘exceptional’ talent but also suggested him to follow the footsteps of his captain in Virat Kohli.
“Pant is an exceptional talent and is the future of Indian cricket. His run-scoring ability, that too all around the wicket, is remarkable. But one thing he quickly needs to learn from his captain Virat Kohli, who is such a fine example of this concept, is how to keep the game simple. I am sure with time, Pant will learn,” Ganguly had written.
Apart from laying emphasis on Pant, Ganguly talked about this current Indian team having in them to beat Australia in Australia across formats.
Read some of the latest Twitter reaction on Pant below:
Ishan Kishan always a better limited over batsman wicketkeeper than Rishabh Pant. #AUSvIND
— Vidyut (@BabyBhogle) November 23, 2018
Ya true. But what about Rishabh Pant? Very bad at Temperament or inexperience in chasing? Can India afford playing such reckless players??#INDvsAUS
— Harshad Chaphekar (@Dr_HarshadC) November 21, 2018
Forget about batting Dinesh Karthik much better keeper Rishabh Pant should be dropped. He is useless at international level.
— Chetan Sharma (@Chetan_Sharma99) November 25, 2018
How immature person like rishabh pant can be the replacement for one and only MS Dhoni.
— Lokendra Rathore (@Lokendr45446352) November 25, 2018
#indvsaust20 Zero of the day “again” Rishabh Pant
— Mohit (@mohitjain279) November 25, 2018
And Rishabh Pant, what were you doing..#IndvsAus
— Suraj Shukla (@suraj_writes) November 25, 2018
#AUSvIND
What is wrong with rishabh pant.?
What he was trying to do.?
It was India’s game.— Rajat Sachdeva (@Being_Rajat_SK) November 21, 2018
It’s still a mystery for me how Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul play ahead of Dinesh Karthik in ODIs. Maybe he fails on tattoo criteria.
— Deepak Vaishya (@deepakvaishya26) November 25, 2018
I feel, Rishabh Pant is struggling in the middle. Still he hasn’t got confident, where he got in IPL. Bring Rayudu in T20, he s a very good striker n fielder. One of the best in Middle. @BCCI @RishabPant777 @RayuduAmbati
— Prabhu (@IamPrabhu18) November 25, 2018
Are we seriously seeing #RishabhPant as a successor of #Dhoni? Failing like this consistently means his chances of selecting in #WorldCup 2019 is bleak. Same case with #KLRahul. Both of them are flops in this t20. What’s your take ? @Ateet_Sharma @vikrantgupta73 @rawatrahul9
— Kiran Lukram (@lukram93) November 25, 2018
