The Indian National Cricket Team has suffered a lot with the number 4 position for at least a couple of years before finding Shreyas Iyer. Later, the absence of MS Dhoni has left a hole in the batting lineup at number 5. Since then, people have felt that Rishabh Pant would fill the shoes of the former skipper, which wasn’t the case. Speaking of the same, Ashish Nehra reveals his opinion.
The selectors and team management have backed several youngsters over the past few years to fill into the roles in the middle order but consistency has been a huge problem. One player who has failed to take his chances off late has been young wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant.
The 22-year-old who went through a rough patch last year failed to make a mark with both the bat and his glovework and was replaced by KL Rahul in India’s previous two limited-overs series.
Rishabh Pant has missed his chances – Ashish Nehra
Since then, KL Rahul has been the man for Virat Kohli in the limited-overs format. The skipper is happy with the show of KL Rahul and wants to continue with him to have an extra all-rounder or a bowler in the team. However, Ashish Nehra isn’t impressed with the move.
“There are a lot of talented players but they should be backed for a longer duration. Today also when we talk about the number 5 and 6 slots in Indian ODI side, then we are not sure about it. KL Rahul is playing on the 5th position and
”And, Pant, the person you were preparing to succeed MS Dhoni, is serving water. I know he has missed his chances and there is no doubt about it but then you have kept him in the team because you saw the potential in him at 22-23 years,” Nehra added.
So far, Pant has played 13 Tests, 16 ODIs and 28 T20Is for India. It would be interesting to see how things would pan out for the young wicket-keeper of India.
