Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar, on Tuesday (June 14), said that stand-in captain Rishabh Pant must think about his own batting and find out what is going wrong with him after his poor outings in the ongoing T20Is against South Africa.
His scores read 29, 5, and 6 so far in the first three matches of the ongoing five-match T20I series against South Africa at home, which is really a cause of concern for not only the team but also for the talented batter.
Gavaskar said that Pant will now have some time to look at his batting with India having won the third T20I by 48 runs against South Africa. The legendary batter feels the left-hander is letting down his fans with his string of poor performances in the T20I series.
Speaking on Star Sports Sunil Gavaskar said: “People expect that he will come along and start hitting the ball for boundaries and sixes. That is something, which because of what he has performed over the last 3-4 years, people have come to expect, and therefore there is that disappointment. But what I think he needs to do, is introspect. What happens during captaincy often is that sometimes you are not thinking about your own game.”
He continued, “You are thinking about the game of others – bowlers or batters. So you forget that there may be some technical issue with your own batting. And that is what he has to sit down and think about. He has got 2 days. First and foremost, he will feel a lot better that India have won. So that little bit of pressure is off. It will give him a little bit of relief and he has got to think about his batting now.”
The former captain advised Pant to avoid those shots that were leading to his downfall, as he lost his wickets in all three matches while playing big shots against South Africa.
Gavaskar further explained, “He must think 'I am getting out hitting deliveries. It is not coming in my arc. I have even moved outside off stump and yet I am not able to do that. So now what do I do? Do I try to make my off-side shots better? Do I have to only look at playing on the on-side? Can I use my power and my timing? Can I start hitting it straight? Or should I hit over the extra cover?'”
He concluded, “And that's the danger part because that is where you slice the ball. And so unless you really hit it well, you are going to be caught in the deep. Hit the ball straight and he will still get the sixes.”
