Rishabh Pant will continue to don the wicketkeeping gloves against South Africa.
BCCI’s senior selection committee headed by MSK Prasad on Thursday (August 29) announced Team India’s squad for the three-match T20I series against South Africa at home.
The 15-man squad had little on unexpected lines, with veteran wicketkeeper MS Dhoni continuing to be left out of the mix and speedster Jasprit Bumrah being rested. Except for Hardik Pandya’s inclusion in place of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the squad that whitewashed West Indies 3-0 earlier this month was retained by the selectors.
While Dhoni’s exclusion left many cricket pundits surprised, former India captain Sourav Ganguly didn't expect the 38-year-old to be "picked" for the upcoming T20I series, starting September 15 in Dharamsala.
"No, I didn't expect him to be picked for this series (against South Africa)," Ganguly quoted as saying by PTI.
He further said that the team management is absolutely right in persisting with young Rishabh Pant.
"You could make out from West Indies (T20) series, that they (team management) wanted to give Rishabh a chance. They want to pursue with him, which is rightly so. Because when MS came in young, he was also persisted with."
Ganguly, however, acknowledged that it's a tricky situation which skipper Virat Kohli needs to deal with.
"I think Virat is very important as to what he is communicating to Dhoni. What he (Kohli) expects of him (Dhoni) is very hard to say. But I don't think anybody should jump the gun and pass a statement," the 47-year-old opined.
"I don't know what's the communication between, Dhoni, the selectors and the team management. I am a bit far off from those discussions," he continued.
For every top athlete, a situation arises at the business end of their careers where they have to take a hard call, reckons Ganguly.
"For every cricketer, there comes a stage and it hasn't left any athlete --whether its Maradona, Sampras, Tendulkar and now Dhoni. When you get to that sort of an age, you will get to that kind of a situation.
"If Virat and team management expects Dhoni to comeback and play, he will play, if they feel like moving forward, they would move forward. Of course, the selectors will also play an important role," he remarked.
Sourav Ganguly also doesn't want Pant to be compared to a legend like Dhoni.
"Rishabh is no MS Dhoni and will not become MS Dhoni in the next 3-4 years. It took 15 years for MS Dhoni to become "the MS Dhoni". Dhoni is a special breed in Indian cricket," he said.
Ganguly also finds it baffling that there were calls from some quarters to drop Pant after his one failure in West Indies.
"I was reading somewhere after he failed in just two innings in the first Test match, that whether he will play the next Test match. I said "what?", this fellow got a hundred, only one Test ago (in Australia) and a couple of 92s few matches before that (against West Indies). He is special although I won't compare him with Dhoni."
(With PTI inputs)