India pacer Mohammad Shami on Wednesday (April 15) heaped praise on Rishabh Pant, saying that the wicket-keeper batsman possesses an amazing talent.
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During an Instagram Live video session, Shami had a long discussion with Irfan Pathan on various topics.
"Rishabh's talent is amazing and it is not like he is my friend that is why I am saying. It is just about confidence, the day he got that confidence, he will be very dangerous," Shami said.
Pant has established himself as a leading wicketkeeper-batsman in red-ball cricket after making his debut in England in 2018. The southpaw has already scored two Test tons outside the subcontinent – the only Indian glovesman to do so.
However, Rishabh is yet to find his feet in limited-overs cricket. With Dhoni making himself unavailable for selection after the World Cup 2019, Pant has been a regular feature in India’s white-ball team. The left-hander has played 16 ODIs and 27 T20Is so far but the averages of 26.71 and 20.50 respectively suggest that he is not doing justice to his talent.
Shami also hailed KL Rahul for his scintillating batting performances at No. 4 in ODIs this year. During the three-ODI series against Australia in January, Rahul batted at No. 5 in one game and registered the score of 52-ball 80. The stylish right-hander did even better during the 50-over series in New Zealand a month later. He recorded the scores of 64-ball 88*, 4 and 113-ball 112 against the Kiwis.
"He [Rahul] smashes a lot. His current form is I think his career's best form. Wherever he is coming to bat, he is playing well. Hope his career continue to proceed like this," Shami said.
When Irfan asked Shami to choose one format, the latter picked T20I as the entertaining format while he termed Test cricket as his favourite format.
"For entertainment purpose, I would like to choose T20I but I would like to play Test cricket for the intensity of the game," he said.
Recalling the memories of his World Cup hat-trick against Afghanistan last year, Shami said he was only thinking about the wickets at that time.
Thanks to Shami’s hat-trick in the final over the game, India had registered a nervy 11-run victory over Afghanistan while defending a modest total of 224.
"I was only thinking about the three stumps. I was clear that I will bowl above 140 kmph. My plan was to ball yorker after taking two wickets on the consecutive ball and Mahi bhai (MS Dhoni) also suggested the same, I did the same and got the hat-trick," the speedster said.
"The only thing in my mind while bowling last over is to execute your plans and back your skills. There is not too much option as a bowler, the more you do variation in bowling, chances are high that you will concede runs," he added.
(With ANI inputs)
