Former Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Deep Dasgupta on Thursday, April 9, said the national team management is doing the right thing by sticking and keeping faith in “incredibly talented and match-winner” Rishabh Pant but feels they need to “handle him in a judicious way.”
Pant has had a roller-coaster of a ride in his promising career, as the young gun has already lost his place in the limited-overs side earlier this year, while his glovework and match-winning ability remains questionable in the Test cricket and his recent performances were far from impressive in the format.
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The commentator also believes that the young wicket-keeper batsman needs to work on a few areas in his game while suggesting the management to let him allow play domestic cricket if he wasn’t picked for the international matches citing recent New Zealand tour.
He was picked in the India squad for both white-ball and Test series, but KL Rahul was preferred over the Delhi lad and he was benched throughout the entire limited-overs series and Dasgupta said he should have played domestic cricket and worked on his skills instead of warming bench in New Zealand.
Dasgupta told India Today, “Yes, the team management is right in showing faith in him [Pant] and sticking to him. He is incredibly talented. He is a match-winner, or to put this way, he is a potential match-winner. He is a confident player as well. However, India needs to handle him in a judicious way.”
The former international further explained, “See he was picked in the team and he did not play for close to a month. He was benched and did not get a lot of games in New Zealand. What happens then is you don't get opportunities. You would not get enough time to bat in the nets.
Generally, players who are playing the match get a lot of opportunities at the nets. Even if you get opportunities, you may not face the best bowlers. Ideally, he should have played domestic cricket and worked on his skills if he was not going to be picked for the matches.”
Even he believes that Pant might have worked out his game but he needed more match time to put it to practice, adding: “Every player needs improvement. Rishabh Pant also needs to work on a few areas in his game. He might have figured that out as well. He might have already figured out what needs to be done to improve his game. However, where would he do that?”
Dasgupta signed off by saying, “He needs to get game time to implement them. Players like Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul used domestic cricket to work on their games. That's why domestic cricket is extremely important to young cricketers. So Rishabh Pant needs to be used judiciously.”
(With India Today Inputs)
