One of the craziest batters in the shortest format of the game is India’s wicket-keeper batter, Rishabh Pant, who could take on the bowlers on his own method from the very first over, and that will be quite beneficial for India, going into the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
Already so many combinations at the top order has been discussed before India’s opening encounter against Ireland, as one of those has been about two of the country’s most experienced players- Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli opening the batting.
During a discussion on Cricbuzz, the former New Zealand bowler Simon Doull came up with a revolutionary and fresh change in the batting line-up, by promoting Rishabh Pant at number three, which will provide them the right-left combination too.
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Rohit Sharma answers whether Rishabh Pant has cemented the No. 3 spot
During the only warm-up game against Bangladesh, the Indian team went with a funky opening combination of Rohit and Sanju Samson. The latter couldn’t add many runs at the top, to bring Rishabh Pant into the middle at number three.
The Uttarakhand-born left-hand batter started his innings quite slowly, before drilling Mehedi Hasan for his first boundary of the game. In the very next over, he looked in a different touch, with two successive sixes against Shakib-Al-Hasan.
The 26-year-old swept the veteran left-arm spinner over square leg, before nailing him over the backward point for the same result. Rishabh Pant ended the over with another six over mid-wicket region.
Finally, with two more back-to-back boundaries, the dynamic batter celebrated his fifty and left the field on an unbeaten score of 53-runs in 32 balls, shouldering on four boundaries and four over-boundaries.
It could prove to be great option for India going into the first game of the tournament against Ireland, given Pant’s free flowing batting will always keep the run-rate at sky-high, whereas if India get off to a string start, then they could easily master themselves to a huge score thanks to the wicket-keeper batter,
Given he is a left-hander, Pant’s presence will make the opponents think twice about their bowling resources, while Suryakumar Yadav could follow him at number four, along with Shivam Dube, another left-hander coming at number five.
At the end of the game, Rohit Sharma, the India captain clarified whether the team is planning to shuffle their batting order going into the tournament.
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Coming into the post-match presentation, Rohit revealed that sending Rishabh Pant at number three was just to give him a chance and India are yet to finalize their batting combination.
‘Just to give him an opportunity. We haven’t nailed the batting line-up yet; we wanted most guys to get a hit in the middle,” Rohit elaborated at the end of the game.
Along with Rishabh, the return of Hardik Pandya was another positive sign for the team, as the all-rounder nailed up unbeaten 40-runs in 23 balls, besides Arshdeep Singh picking up two crucial wickets with the ball in hand, as India pocketed a vital 60-run win at the end.