Ahead of the mega ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final in England, New Zealand bowling coach Shane Jurgensen has heaped praise on India’s wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant.
He said Pant is an “extremely dangerous and positive-minded” player and will be a big threat for New Zealand in the World Test Championship (WTC) final to be played from June 18 in Southampton.
However, Jurgensen believes that it would be a great opportunity for the Kiwi bowlers to get the better of Pant the way he plays the risky brand of cricket batting down the order when India and New Zealand meet in the WTC final next month in Southampton.
Read Also: Salman Butt says no insecurity in Indian players a good sign after Saha praises Pant
Notably, the left-hander has been in scintillating form with the bat since India’s tour of Australia last year, as he produced some match-defining and the high impact knocks to help the Indian cricket team clinch the memorable Test series against England and Aussies.
Pant has so far amassed 1358 runs at an average of 45.26 and strike rate of 71.47 with three hundreds and 6 fifties in just 20 Tests for India.
The swashbuckling batsman has the ability to change the course of a match with his destructive power-hitting batting at the lower-middle order for Team India and Jurgensen is aware of the threat Pan can pose in the upcoming WTC final.
Jurgensen said, “Well, Pant is an extremely dangerous player who can change the game on its head. We saw how well he did it against Australia and England. He’s extremely positive-minded, but with that comes potentially the opportunity to take his wicket.”
He added, “Our bowlers need to execute well, stay calm and make it as difficult as possible for Pant to score runs. He’s certainly a free-flowing batsman and a tough one to stop, which we should keep in mind.”
New Zealand bowling coach has also high expectations from the young paceman Kyle Jamieson who played under Virat Kohli for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL 2021. He was one of the key bowlers when the Kiwi side crushed India 2-0 in their last Test series.
Jurgensen further said of Jamieson, “Well, Kyle has played with Virat at RCB and no doubt they would have exchanged some comments potentially leading into this final. So interesting times ahead. I’m sure it’s going to be great to watch Kyle.”
Read Also: L Balaji sees a lot of bowling similarities between Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj
He also believes that the upcoming two-match Test series against England before the WTC final against India will help Jamieson to get into his grooves. The bowling coach added, “His Test career too has been outstanding so far. He has got a great opportunity to prepare really well in the lead-up to the final, beginning with the two Tests versus England.”
Jurgensen also mentioned that India also has a lethal fast bowling attack for the WTC final comprising Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, and Shardul Thakur along with two experienced and outstanding spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the line-up.
He signed off by saying, “It’s a challenging bowling attack that India has. A lot of options are available for them. It’ll be a very, very stiff challenge we could face from (Jasprit) Bumrah to Shardul (Thakur), who’s an all-rounder and has done well in Australia too. There’s Mohammed Siraj and even their spinners, who can spin it both ways. It’s a group of formidable, outstanding Test bowlers.”
(With News18 Inputs)
