India leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal lavished praise on young wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant, saying the 24-year-old looks a very mature cricketer now from the time he came into the side.
Chahal added that when Pant was brought in the Indian setup, people started comparing him with legendary MS Dhoni and questioned his ability to fill the big shoes.
“Actually, everyone wanted him (Pant) to be like Mahi bhai. The way MSD was behind the stumps. I remember if Pant would ever drop any catch or the DRS went wrong, then the whole ground would start shouting ‘Mahi Mahi’.
“So, there was a lot of pressure on that child (Pant)… because he was only around 19 or 20 years old at that time. We would tell him to ignore all these things and focus on your game. He was under tremendous pressure…then he was also out of the team for a while,” Chahal told SGTV.
Pant is now India’s first-choice glovesman across all formats.
He made India to lift the Border Gavaskar series with his tremoundous batting in the final Test match and since then he was praised all-around.,
“He made a superb comeback. He has improved a lot; he has shown a lot of maturity. His performance has been really good and I guess people should understand that when a sportsperson is on the ground, he tries his best, and nobody wants to perform badly. People should give a little respect to the player,” Chahal said.
“Bowlers are now getting good help from Pant being behind the stumps. See, there is no replacement for any player. There can be no replacement for Mahi bhai. Pant is trying his best to do better and better. No need to do comparisons,” he added.
