Former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson heaped praise on Delhi Capitals (DC) skipper Rishabh Pant and has given the young batter advice ahead of the all-important Qualifier 2 of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
Delhi Capitals (DC) would have sealed the final spot, if not for MS Dhoni's heroics in the final over, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) beat DC by 4 wickets in Qualifier 1 to make it to the final.
Well, Pant has now a huge task ahead of him as DC will battle out with KKR in the Qualifier 2 of the IPL 2021 on Wednesday (October 13) in Sharjah for the final spot, and former CSK all-rounder suggested the young skipper to play with freedom, and not let the situations and leaderships to dictate his game.
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Watson was quoted as saying by ANI: “My advice to Rishabh Pant is to play with freedom, have that air of arrogance and confidence - that he does when he's at his best like he did in that last game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), those one-handed sixes.”
The Aussie further added, “He's absolutely crazy, the skills that he's got, and for me, the advice would be to go out and have that confidence. Don't allow the situations, the leaderships to dictate how you play. You go out and play with freedom - take the game on.”
Hailing Pant as a “match-winner”, Watson mentioned: “If you feel that you can line up a bowler, then you fully commit to it and take him on - because he is a match-winner. He can take the game away from the opposition very quickly - and everyone wants to see that, the team wants to see that, and him as a leader wants to see that as well.”
40-year-old Watson also lauded KKR’s top batting order comprising of Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer followed by Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi.
Watson further said, “KKR really turned things around since Shubman Gill and Iyer (Venkatesh) have started opening the batting and really taking on the game. You can see a big shift from the first leg of the IPL in India to the one in the UAE.”
He signed off by saying, “The intensity that they showed from ball one was very obvious and they are able to capitalize on it in the first six overs and because Tripathi (Rahul) in particular has been so good in middle overs, that it has set up a platform for KKR to turn things around.”
(With ANI Inputs)
