India skipper Rohit Sharma on Monday (March 14) backed Rishabh Pant’s aggressive batting style, saying the team is willing to accept what comes with the wicketkeeper batter for his sheer ability to be a game-changer in matter of minutes.
During the pink-ball Test against Sri Lanka in Bangalore, Pant became the fastest Indian batter to smash a half-century in the longest format as he reached the landmark in 28 balls, surpassing Kapil Dev's 30-ball record.
The southpaw registered scores of 96, 39 and 50 in India’s 2-0 Test series victory over Sri Lanka and earned the Player-of-the-Series award.
While praising the youngster, Rohit also mentioned that Pant has been asked to respect the conditions and match situation and the latter has got better with his game plans.
"We know how he bats and as a team we just want to give him that freedom to bat in the way that he wants to bat. But also keeping in mind certain situations of the game, where the game is going, we have conveyed that to him but we want to stick with his gameplan as a team," Rohit said at the press conference after India’s 238-run victory over Sri Lanka.
"It just seems to get better and get better, his game-plans. There will be times when you will smash your head and say 'why did he play that shot' but again we need to be ready to accept that with him when he bats."
"He is somebody who can change the game literally in half an hour or 40 minute of the game. I think what comes with Rishabh Pant, we are ready to accept that," he added.
The Indian captain also lauded Rishabh Pant for his brilliance behind the stumps in this series and his input for DRS call.
"His keeping was best that I have seen. He kept well when England came last year and he seems to get better every time he keeps wickets for India, so that is something that I have been very impressed with.
"And also the DRS calls, (he) seems to be making the right calls. DRS we all know, it's like a lottery. There are certain aspects of the game that I have told him to look into and that's about it. DRS calls are not something you will always get it right, there will be times when you will be making wrong calls, but that's absolutely okay."
It was Rohit Sharma’s first series as Test captain after Virat Kohli relinquished the leadership position following the South Africa Test series earlier this year.
Commenting on his captaincy, Rohit said: "There are a few senior members in the team who understand the game well and had their inputs as well. I have my reading of the game as well. But eventually you work on instinct and my captaincy philosophy is to take a call on that point which seems right to you, keeping in mind of where the game is going. I try to analyse these things on the ground."
According to Rohit, Team India’s long-term target is to reach the finals of the World Test Championship.
"But, honestly we cannot look that far ahead as it does not work like that. We need to look into the present, make sure that there are few steps to climb to reach to that place. For us, reaching those small goals are very important.
"Having lost the series in SA, it was critical for us to make an impact and get those crucial points for us.
"We were missing two of our experienced batters (Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane) but Hanuma Vihari batting at a new position was a challenge.
"And Iyer batting at six was going to be another challenge, but he showed a lot of maturity in the way he played on those challenging wickets. We pretty much achieved everything that we wanted as a team, boxes got ticked."
(With PTI inputs)
