Australian batting great Ricky Ponting has called India’s Rishabh Pant an exceptionally dangerous batter and expects him to be an integral part of the Men in Blue’s T20 World Cup 2022 campaign. The duo has worked together extensively as part of the Delhi Capitals IPL franchise, where Pant is the captain and Ponting is the head coach.
Pant recently made his India captaincy debut in the first T20I against South Africa in a losing cause and almost took the DC team into the IPL 2022 playoffs as well.
Delhi Capitals head coach Ponting believes that Pant is "an outstanding young man who has the world at his feet".
"He's (Pant) a wonderful player. He is just an outstanding young man who has got the world at his feet and he'll be exceptionally dangerous for India, especially on the wickets we'll provide in Australia... good flat, fast, bouncy wickets. He'll be one of the players to watch out for in the tournament," opined Pointing on ICC Review.
Having been with Pant in Delhi Capitals and observing him carefully, Ponting opined that the left-hander should be utilized as a "floater" during the T20 World Cup in October-November this year.
"I reckon having him as a floater. I think I'll probably have him listed at No. 5 somewhere in the batting line-up. But, I think, when some situations come where it gets to a stage where it's 7-8 overs to go and might be 1-2 (wickets) down, then I think I'll look at sending him in and giving him as much time as I possibly can," added Pointing.
Ponting felt that given the "dynamic" and "explosive" cricketer the left-arm batter is, he would want to use Pant in that specific role.
"He's that dynamic and explosive player... that's certainly the way I'd look at trying to use him. He was really frustrated with his IPL because he went into the tournament getting better than I've ever seen him bat before, and even by his own admission, he said the same thing to me. (In fact), halfway through the tournament, he was getting the results that he probably deserved," added Ponting.
Ponting said that when Pant hit a bad patch, he kept reminding the batter about the fickle nature of T20 cricket.
"And I kept reinforcing that thing to him at the nets that's a T20 game. You make a little error of judgment (and) all of a sudden your game is over if you are cruising around at 35 or whatever... and that's sort of how it felt for him," added Ponting.
(IANS inputs)
