BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has highly praised young Indian wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant after his recent exploits with the bat in Australia and in the home series against England. He played a few match-winning innings against Australia and a couple more in the recently concluded series against England. He has well and truly pipped Wriddhiman Saha as India’s first-choice wicketkeeper in Tests.
Speaking to India Today, Sourav Ganguly had high regard for young Rishabh Pant who according to him is a pure matchwinner. Sourav has seen Pant grow during his stint with Delhi Capitals as an advisor in 2019. Ganguly had backed Pant’s talent time and again. After seeing Pant finally living up to the expectations, Ganguly rated the Delhi lad among the match-winners the Indian team has had, including the likes of MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh.
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Rishabh Pant Is a Matchwinner: Sourav Ganguly
“I have seen Pant very closely and I believe in match-winners. When they get going on their day, they single-handedly can win matches. Rishabh Pant is such a player. I have also said this in the past, had he stayed at the crease for 5 or 6 overs, India could have won the Sydney Test. He is a game-changer. I like match-winners. In my time, we had Sehwag, Yuvraj, Dhoni” Ganguly told India Today.
Pant has shown remarkable improvement with the gloves in the recent Test series as well. Indian head coach Ravi Shastri spoke about the youngster training hard in the gym and losing a few kilos to get fit. Saha was chosen over Pant in the first Test in Adelaide, but since the second Test in Melbourne, Pant has played every Test for India ever since.
Rishabh Pant last played in the white-ball format for India in the 2019 World Cup. He was called in as a late replacement for Bhuvneshwar Kumar who injured himself. The 23-year-old had a tough 2020 when he was also dropped from India’s limited-overs squads and struggled to get into the XI in the Test team too. He will be making a comeback in the white-ball format in the white-ball leg against England.
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