Sourav Ganguly on Rishabh Pant: Former Indian captain was vocal regarding the Indian wicket-keeper learning from the Indian captain.
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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.
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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.
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Read some of the latest Twitter reaction on Pant below:
