Cricket News

‘You cannot keep your bat quiet for too long’: Former Indian cricketer speaks up on Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant is regarded as the future of Indian Cricket. The wicketkeeper-batsman has had big shoes to fill ever since he made his international debut. Five years into his international career, Pant has emerged as one of the rising stars of Indian Cricket. The drawback of having such stardom at such an early stage in one’s career is that your performance is always under the scanner. So has been the case with Pant who has been finding it hard to get going in the shortest format of the game.

In the ongoing T20i series against South Africa Pant has scored 40 runs in 3 matches so far with 29 runs coming in the first game itself. In fact, after 46 matches in his T20 international career, Pant averages just 23.32 with 3 half-centuries to his name. Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan expressed his disappointment about Pant’s constant failures in T20 internationals after the southpaw’s struggle in the middle during the third T20.

During the post-match discussion on Star Sports, Pathan advised Pant to start performing as the team has many wicketkeeper batsmen available as his replacement. “You already have Dinesh Karthik and Ishan Kishan as wicketkeepers in the playing XI and Sanju Samson is waiting, and KL Rahul (who can keep) is a name who I will always keep in my playing XI. I feel he (Rahul) is the best cricketer. So there is a lot of competition, you cannot keep your bat quiet for too long,” said Pathan as quoted by Sportskeeda.

On being asked about Pant’s dismissal in the third T20i the former India all-rounder was of the opinion that he tries to hit the ball too hard while playing shots on the off-side. “I feel he tries to muscle the ball a lot when he plays on the off side. When you try to put the same power that you put while playing on the leg side while losing your shape, there will be problems,” Pathan elaborated.