Cricket News

‘There is the disappointment’ – Indian legend draws light on Rishabh Pant’s current form

Former Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar has a word of advice for Rishabh Pant after his constant failures in the shortest format of the game. He feels that the keeper-batter needs to focus on his batting woes as well and not just concentrate on the captaincy. India made a terrific comeback in the ongoing T20I series on Tuesday against South Africa after losing the first two matches. India’s thumping victory in the third T20I came as a result of star performances from Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan with the bat, and Axar Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal with the ball.

Pant’s struggles started in the recently concluded Indian T20 League season where he couldn’t register a single half-century next to his name in the entire season. As the southpaw is going through his early days in the captaincy, he’s bound to make mistakes but what’s more worrisome is his mediocre performance with the bat.

Gavaskar opined that as soon as Pant walks in, he’s expected to entertain the crowd with fours and sixes which he hasn’t been doing which is disappointing for the former India Captain. He advised Pant to examine his own game which players tend to forget while captaining the team and also suggested he get his thoughts back on batting.

“People expect that he will come along and start hitting the ball for the boundaries and sixes. That is something which, because of what he has performed over the last three to four years, people have come to expect. Therefore there is the disappointment,” Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

“But what he needs to do is introspect. What happens with the captaincy often is that you don’t think about your own game. You are thinking about the game of the others. So, you forget that there is some technical issue with your own batting or the approach issue with the batting. That is what he is going to have to sit down,” Gavaskar added.