Former Indian cricketer Wasim Jaffer believes Rishabh Pant can end his career as a better cricketer than former Indian captain MS Dhoni. Incidentally, Pant has grown leaps and bounds in the last couple of years.

While he is certainly the best wicket-keeper batsman India have ever seen in the red-ball format, it will take some time for Pant to match MS Dhoni’s skills when it comes to the limited-overs format.

However, Jaffer believes 8-10 years down the line Rishabh Pant will be better than Dhoni, who bid farewell to international cricket in 2020. Speaking on ESPNCricinfo, the former Indian opener said:

“Yes, he can definitely become a better wicketkeeper-batter than Dhoni. At such a young age, he has already played some of the most incredible knocks so in the coming 8-10 years, I feel he’ll be more mature and with more experience, he can definitely be better than Dhoni.”

Incidentally, Rishabh Pant had an incredible outing in the recent Test series against Sri Lanka. Besides being spectacular behind the stumps, Rishabh also made some telling contributions with the bat at No.5.

He amassed 185 runs at a strike rate of 120 to win the Player of the Series award.

“He is somebody who can change the game in 40 minutes” – Rohit Sharma on Rishabh Pant

Indian captain Rohit Sharma also spoke highly of the 24-year-old cricketer and how the team banks on his abilities. Rohit also added the we back his natural instincts of playing an attacking game irrespective of the results.

“His batting is his batting. 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,” Rohit said at the end of the Bengaluru Test.

He added:

“But also keeping in mind certain situations of the game, where the game is going, we have also conveyed that to him, but we want to stick with his game plan as a team. 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. And he is somebody who can change the game in 40 minutes.” 

---

Get the latest cricket news here and like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more such updates.