Ravi Shastri believes that Rishabh Pant is not natural at wicket-keeping but his talent will go waste if he doesn’t work hard enough.
Rishabh Pant has received more criticism than applause for his performances since replacing MS Dhoni in limited-overs cricket. The southpaw’s batting maturity, wicket-keeping skills and suggestions to captain Kohli for taking DRS is always questioned. Head coach Ravi Shastri talked a fair bit about him.
Shastri told The Hindu, “He has to work really hard on his wicketkeeping. He is not a natural keeper but he’s got all that talent which will go to waste if he doesn’t work on his keeping. I think he has realized that and if you see him now, he is working extremely hard on his keeping as well.”
Pant bats in the same aggressive manner in the matches like he bats in the nets. Shastri believes that he should not change his aggressive batting style but should know when to hit big.
“I would not like to change his game for anything. We tell him to try and understand his game, be selective in shot-making, see what the team demands are, assess the state of the game, figure out a way of how he can play, by still being aggressive but by taking calculated risks,” the 57-year-old said.
“He has a reputation of being a devastating player, big hitter. That is what he has to get used to. Every time he comes to bat, the crowd expects sixes off everything. This is where he has to manage his game properly,” he added.
Rishabh Pant has lost his place in the team to KL Rahul after getting concussed during the ODI series against Australia. It will be interesting to see how and whether he makes his comeback to the Indian team.
(Inputs from The Hindu)
