Recently, Irfan Pathan made a statement on Rishabh Pant and said sometimes a kick in the backside can do a lot of good.
Since the 2019 World Cup Rishabh Pant has been considered as the premier Indian wicket-keeper batsmen.
MS Dhoni’s exit from international cricket created space for many youngsters. Rishabh Pant was the supreme choice for the selectors and captain Kohli, but Pant never utilized the chances he got, and later on, he was dropped from the Indian one-day squad.
Pant’s World Cup Dream
Last year was a roller coaster journey for Rishabh Pant. Again when we talk about the 2019 World Cup, Rishabh Pant wasn’t the part of the tournament initially. Later on when Shikhar Dhawan was injured and was dropped from squad then Rishabh Pant was called-up as his replacement.
The 22-year-old didn’t play too many matches in the World Cup, but his 30-40 run contribution in some matches showed his potential.
Being the part of the Indian World Cup squad was the biggest dream for Pant and that too in his first year of international cricket.
He scored 32 runs in the semifinal encounter against New Zealand and to an extent, he held the innings with him. The biggest allegation on Rishabh was he never exploited his chances into a positive fortune. After the 2019 World Cup, he emerged as the first choice for taking over MS Dhoni’s mantle but the Roorkie based star was out of form through last year.
Things went out of control for Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul was later chosen before him to be the part of the Indian squad as a wicket-keeper batsman.
Recently, Irfan Pathan made a statement on Rishabh Pant and said, “Sometimes you are getting too much backing from the captain and the team management, but I think when you get a little bit of kick on your back, that’s when if you have the talent you are going to go big.”
“I have no doubt that even though all the pressure is coming on him, he had to miss out some matches in T20 cricket with KL Rahul going out and doing what he did as a wicketkeeper as well and that is going to put pressure, but I think that will do a world of good to Rishabh Pant,” he added.
