Former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan heaped praise on Rishabh Pant for his sizzling show on the opening day of the ongoing rescheduled Test against England and mentioned that the young left-hander’s hundreds came most of the time when the team was in danger.
When India was struggling at 98/5, Pant took charge of the Indian team and played an amazing knock of 146 runs off 111 balls, as well as added 222 runs for the sixth wicket with Ravindra Jadeja to rescue India, as the tourists ended day one at 338/7 against England in Birmingham. India eventually finished with 416 in their first innings.
Impressed by Pant's classy innings, Zaheer said the young wicketkeeper-batter is consistently scoring hundreds on overseas tours and believes he will always be the difference for India.
Zaheer Khan said on Cricbuzz: “If you look at Pant's career so far, he has already played so many impactful innings. If you look at his centuries, all of them have gone on to change the course of the match. He has a long way to go and it is a huge positive that he is able to score hundreds at this pace on a consistent basis.”
Pant is known for playing attacking cricket across the formats, and the former pacer feels it is helping him while lauding the cricketer for living up to the expectations people have of him.
The 43-year-old further explained, “There has always been an x-factor in Rishabh Pant's batting. He was known for this in his U-19 days as well. His reputation was already set like that. After that, you have to constantly prove yourself at this level.”
He signed off by saying, “There have been highs and lows so far, and there might be in the future as well, but the way which he handles the expectations, he has a reassurance about his ability.”
(With Cricbuzz Inputs)
