The aggressive approach has yielded great results for Rishabh Pant in the first three Tests.
Rishabh Pant has been in terrific touch with the bat in the ongoing England tour. He slammed twin centuries in the series opener at Headingley.
The southpaw followed up his brilliant 134 in the first innings with an entertaining 118 in the second essay. As a result, he became only the second wicketkeeper in history to score a century in both innings of a Test match, joining Zimbabwe legend Andy Flower in an elite list.
Pant continued his impressive form in the second Test at Edgbaston, returning with scores of 25 and 65 as India registered a series-levelling 336-run victory in the five-match rubber.
In the third Test at Lord’s, the swashbuckling left-hander scored 74 and 9 despite suffering a finger injury while fielding in England’s first innings.
While the aggressive approach yielded great results for Rishabh Pant in the first three Tests, he has received a blunt warning from ex-India wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer ahead of the penultimate match in Manchester.
"Absolutely. Save those for IPL. Test cricket demands discipline. From a number three or four, you expect them to play proper cricket, get big scores, and build innings," Engineer told RevSportz.
"He has the confidence and has gotten away with it often. But he needs to be more responsible in crucial moments, like right before lunch or at the end of a day's play. Still, he's immensely talented. He invents his own shots, and thankfully, helmets allow that now. In our time, we wouldn't have had any teeth left."
After sustaining finger injury on Day 1 at Lord’s, Rishabh Pant had to leave the field for medical attention and skipped keeping duties for the rest of the match. However, Engineer believes Pant can make the playing XI purely as a batter.
"For the runs he's scored, yes, he can play as a pure batter. But Rishabh is unpredictable. Whatever comes to his mind, he does it. I joked with him about his shot selection, and he just laughed—said he does what feels right in the moment. Rishabh has scored centuries in both innings of a Test, which is remarkable. So yes, he could play purely as a batsman, especially with England's strong bowling lineup, now including Jofra Archer and Atkinson," Engineer remarked.