Following Rishabh Pant’s performance in World Test Championship (WTC) 2021 final, former England spinner Graeme Swann has urged the Indian team and its fans to back the way the wicketkeeper-batsman plays.
Rishabh Pant has invited criticism for his failure in the WTC final against New Zealand. The wicketkeeper-batsman was dismissed for 4 and 41 in his two innings in Southampton.
During the second innings, the Virat Kohli-led side displayed a poor batting performance on the reserve day of the final and was bundled out for just 170 in their second innings.
Rishabh Pant gave Indian fans some hope by scoring 41 off 88 balls with four boundaries but the southpaw gave his wicket away by dancing down the wicket to Trent Boult and only managed to sky an attempted big shot and was caught by Henry Nicholls.
His wild hoick against Trent Boult saw him getting criticised and his approach was questioned by my fans and pundits as they felt that the batsman should have batted with a little bit of caution.
However, former England’s spinner Graeme Swann backed Rishabh Pant saying that he’s a match-winner and urged Indian fans to not be too critical of his failure in the WTC final.
"He is a match-winner. All I want to say to cricket fans in India - don't fix what isn't broken. You have some absolute goldmine ready to be unearthed and used well for 10 years. Don't change Rishabh Pant. Let him fail. Let him be. He is absolutely worth it," Graeme Swann told Sportskeeda.
Graeme Swann further cited India's last Test match against England where Rishabh Pant scored a hundred. He said that, contrary to perception, had the youngster 'played the situation' in that innings, India would have failed to win that game.
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"India has got an absolute superstar in Rishabh Pant going in at 6 or 7. Just go back to one Test match in India’s history. That magnificent century he scored against England (in Ahmedabad) that won them that series. Never forget that,"
"It was a counter-attacking inning, played against the grind, playing against the spin a lot of times. It was a brilliant hundred. Had he got in there and 'played the situation' and tried to block it, India would not have won that game. It is as simple as that,”
Rishabh Pant will next be seen in action when Virat Kohli-led side take on hosts England in the five-match Test series starting, 4th August at Trent Bridge.
(SportsKeeda Inputs)
