New Zealand Vs India 2020: 1st Test, Wellington – Fans React After Rishabh Pant Replaces Wriddhiman Saha

Feb 21, 2020 at 1:28 PM

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New Zealand Vs India 2020: 1st Test, Wellington – Fans React After Rishabh Pant Replaces Wriddhiman Saha

The Test series between the hosts New Zealand and the visitors India have started on Friday (21st February). One of the trending topics of the day one was Rishabh Pant, who replaced Wriddhiman Saha for the wicketkeeping role in the Indian team.

New Zealand and India are playing the opening game of the two-match Test series at Basin Reserve (Wellington). After winning the toss, New Zealand decided to field first.

For this first Test, India rested Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravindra Jadeja, Navdeep Saini and Umesh Yadav.

Rishabh Pant last played a Test match in early September 2019:

It is the first international match for Pant since the Mumbai ODI against Australia (on 14th January 2020) where he was injured during batting.

In between this period, the 22-year-old played only one match and it was the three-day tour game on this New Zealand tour where the left-handed batsman scored seven and 70 runs respectively.

Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha
Rishabh Pant (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Last time, Pant played a Test match in last August-September during the Kingston Test against the hosts West Indies. Due to his struggling form, Pant was dropped from the Test-playing XI and Saha returned to the Test wicketkeeper’s role after battling with multiple injuries. Though Saha impressed hugely with his wicketkeeping skills, he hasn’t performed well with the bat yet.

Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha
Wriddhiman Saha (Image Credit: Google)

While the Wellington Test is the first Test for India in 2020, the team management finally selected  Pant in the Test playing XI.

Here are some top possible brief reasons why the team management has chosen Pant over Saha for the Wellington Test.

  • Working on future prospects
  • Giving more importance to batting in the tough and unfamiliar pitch
  • Presence of at least one left-handed batsman

During the rain-interrupted game on day one of the Wellington Test, India finished on 122/5. While the Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane remained not out on 38 runs, opener Mayank Agarwal scored 34 runs.

At stumps, Rishabh Pant (10 not out) was batting with Rahane.

Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha
Rishabh Pant (Image Credit: Twitter)

The Indian fans have mixed reactions on the wicketkeeping debate between Saha and Pant.

Here are some of these Twitter reactions:

https://twitter.com/RishabPant777/status/1230666498047238146?s=20

https://twitter.com/ig2015/status/1230720610105348096?s=20

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