Cricket News

‘I had to find a way to get Rishabh to…’ -Former India coach reveals the secret sauce that went in to train Pant in his initial days

Rishabh Pant with his game changing performances abroad and at home has made his place as a permanent fixture in the Indian Test side. But when he burst onto the scene he was raw and was far from the finished product that we see now. He wonderfully made everyone sit up and take notice of his batting but the same could not be said about his keeping. 

In his initial days with the Indian Team Pant could not keep properly to the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Due to this issue Pant was used more in overseas matches at first before he became the regular keeper at home. R Sridhar in his book talked about how it was tough to work with Pant at first before the two hit it off together eventually.

I decided it was time for some tough love – R Sridhar

“There were some inputs he was little reluctant to take. Because he trusted the game that had brought him to this level. Sometimes, I must confess, it drove me nuts, his stubbornness. But getting angry or frustrated wasn’t going to help anyone. I had to find a way to get Rishabh to try and do different things, if only for him to figure out if those changes might actually be beneficial to his keeping,” Sridhar wrote in his book ‘Coaching Beyond’.

Sridhar went on to talk about what method he used to train Pant to make him realise his mistakes.

“We spent a lot of time together at practice, often just him and me and I decided it was time for a little tough love. I stopped giving suggestions and inputs and would ignore his quizzical looks when the ball burst through his hands or he fumbled with his collection. Rishabh has the smarts so it didn’t take him long to work out something wasn’t quite right,” he added.

“After a while he walked up to me and said ‘Sir, you aren’t saying anything. Please tell me what to do. Smiling inwardly, I said ‘Maybe you should lead with your head and not with your hands. Satisfied at having got me to shed my silence, he did precisely that. As the head led the way, so did the body and he was more assured in collecting the ball.” He stated.

The left-handed batter has been India’s best batter in Tests with hundreds in England and Australia.