Sunil Gavaskar Gives The Reason Why Rishabh Pant Should Be Selected For The World Cup
Feb 3, 2019 at 11:14 PM
The young Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant has impressed the experts with his early on-field performances. Recently, the Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar defended him for his selection in the upcoming World Cup.
Rishabh Pant’s brief career
Since the 2016 ICC U19 World Cup, Pant was under the selectors’ observation. Later, he impressed in the IPL and domestic cricket and made his international cricket debut in February 2017 through the T20I cricket.
Pant has to wait around one and a half year more to make his Test and ODI debut. Since making his Test debut at Nottingham Test in last August, Pant has consistently made the top impression in international cricket.
After the excellent Test series in England and later, against Windies in India, Pant had the superb performances in the Australia tour. In the four-match Test series of that tour, Pant was the second most run-scorer as he scored 350 runs in seven innings (average 58.33), including one century. As a middle-order batsman, the left-hander was consistent in the Test series.
Playing nine Tests already, Pant has scored 696 runs with the average of 49.71. Apart from scoring two centuries, he also has 2 scores of 90+. Moreover, his wicketkeeping figure is also impressive in Test cricket.
Rishabh Pant can solve India’s left-hander batting problem: Gavaskar
The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup is just less than four months away to begin. Gavaskar feels Pant could be a better answer for India’s lack of left-handed middle-order batting option.
Gavaskar recently told India Today,“Rishabh Pant is the kind of player who loves limited-overs cricket and again he is a left-hander. And in the middle-order, India does not have any left-hander. India only have Shikhar Dhawan at the top of the order as a left-hander.”
Later, Gavaskar clarified why the left-handed batsman is important in limited-overs cricket. He claimed that it brought varieties inside the team, especially when the opposition had multiple left-arm bowlers.
He added, “If you have a left-handed option at 4, 5, 6, that gives the captain a few more options depending on the attack for example. And if there are a lot of left-hand bowlers in the opposition, you want at least two left-hand batters in the team. In that regard, I feel selection committee must keep Rishabh Pant in mind for the 50-overs version as well.”
Selectors did not select Pant in the ODI squads of the recent Australia tour and the ongoing New Zealand tour. However, recently the chief selector MSK Prasad has assured that Pant is a part of their World Cup plans.