Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has named Rishabh Pant as Team India’s best Test player of 2022. He said that the youngster completely overshadowed former India captain Virat Kohli when they batted together in the Cape Town Test against South Africa as well.
Pant scored 680 runs which came at an excellent average of 61.81 in the seven Tests he played last year. He hit two centuries and four half-centuries and scored his runs at an impressive strike rate of 90.90 as well. In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra opened up on some of the star performers for Team India in 2022 as well. He shared:
“When we went to South Africa, we lost both Tests in the new year. But Rishabh Pant shone there as well. I remember the century he scored in the second innings. Virat Kohli was at the other end but it seemed Rishabh Pant was batting on a different planet altogether. In my opinion, Rishabh has been India’s best Test player in 2022. You can see that knock or the knock in Bangladesh, the way he creates excitement wherever Test cricket is played, he has the power to change the game on his own and conditions don’t apply.”
“Rishabh Pant is that good a player when you make him wear white clothes” – Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra continued: “It happens many times that when you go overseas, the conditions don’t allow you to score too many runs but Rishabh Pant scored runs everywhere. He scored runs in India and even more outside India.”
Rishabh Pant smashed 185 runs at an average of 61.67 in the two Tests he played in India last year as well. The southpaw scored 495 runs, including both his centuries, at a better average of 61.87 in the five Tests he played away from home as well. Chopra shared that Pant is being compared to Kohli as well.
“In fact, the discussion has already started that is he the greatest wicketkeeper of all time and he is not even 26 yet. Rishabh Pant is that good a player when you make him wear white clothes, when he plays red-ball cricket, he is a gem,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
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