Sourav Ganguly was mesmerized by the free-flowing strokeplay of Rishabh Pant against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Pant scored an unbeaten 128 but still couldn't help Delhi win the match against the opposition who are now through to the playoffs by virtue of this 9 wicket win. 

Predicting the prosperous future of Rishabh Pant, Ganguly said that its just a matter of time before Pant starts to play for India regularly. In a promotional event, Ganguly lavished praise on the DD left-hander saying  "For Rishabh, it will happen, he will get there... I think he is the future". 

"For the likes of Pant, Ishan Kishan (who scored a 21-ball 52), time will come. They are young there's no hurry. They will get matured as they play more games with time. They will play for India in the years to come.

"But having said that consistency is important, hope it's not just one off. I was reading about Ishan Kishan after that knock in Kolkata... When you pick someone for the country, you look at consistency -- how many times does he keep doing that. Yes, T20 is different, opportunities are a lot lesser." 

Defending the selector's decision, Ganguly said: "At the present moment MS Dhoni is there. You can't replace MS at the moment, then you have Dinesh Karthik who also deserves a chance in the national side, especially after what he did in Sri Lanka to win that game which was absolutely lost for India. Dinesh deserves more than anybody else because I think he is a very very good player." 

Pant's knock reminded Ganguly of Brendon McCullum's 73-ball 158 not out against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the opening night of the IPL when Kolkata Knight Riders won by 140 runs at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on April 18, 2008.

"I saw McCullum knock from the other end in the first game of IPL. I was batting with him, but to see Rishabh Pant play the way he did yesterday was phenomenal." 

Delhi Daredevils after their loss against SRH last night are unfortunately knocked out of the tournament, despite Pant's heroics.