Young Indian wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant on Wednesday (September 11) made it clear that he really loves MS Dhoni but he does not want to be drawn into comparisons with the great man, rather choosing to focus on his own game and keep improving with each opportunity.

The national selectors have already made their intentions clear that they are looking at the youngster as a long-term option to take over from Dhoni with naming Pant as the primary wicket-keeper across all the formats for the upcoming home series against South Afric.a

Pant told reporters at an event on Wednesday, “I just love him, I am a big fan of Dhoni Bhai. (But) I'm focusing on my cricket without thinking too much about who's saying what. I just want to take one match at a time. My focus is to improve myself.”

Following his poor outing in the West Indies tour, Pant is eyeing for a fresh start with the upcoming limited-overs matches against South Africa, saying he will give his best with a positive mindset in the series after receiving a lot of criticism for his below-par show in the Caribbean nation.  

He further said, “I have practiced hard for the South Africa series, and I am going with a positive mindset. I will try my best to get a good start. It went great for our team. It's great to return on a clean slate. But once a team returns, the last series is passed.

Of course, it's our home series and there will be an advantage for us but the most important thing is to start well. I am looking forward to improving myself and helping team India to win more matches.”

The young keeper also admitted that India will have home advantage but they could not take the Proteas lightly. Pant signed off by saying, “We have practiced really well and mindset is good. We will look to do well. Our planning is going well. We will have home advantage but they are a good side. The focus is to do well in the South Africa series right now, then we will think of Bangladesh. We will take one series at a time.”

(With PTI Inputs)