Former cricketer R. Ashwin lauded Rishabh Pant’s flamboyance and said that the wicketkeeper-batter can score a century in every game if he realises his full potential.
“We have to tell him properly what he has to do if he has to bat solid or bat with intent. He hasn’t scored a lot of runs, but he didn’t play like someone without runs. He has a lot of time on his hands. Rishabh Pant is yet to realise his fullest potential,” said Ashwin on his Youtube channel.
“He has all the shots — reverse sweep, slog sweep, everything — but the problem is that all these shots are high-risk shots. With his defence, he will surely score runs every game if he faces 200 balls.
“The point is finding that middle game. If he combines all of it, he will score 100 runs every game. He has to find that middle game,” he added.
Pant scored the second-fastest Test fifty by an Indian (off 29 deliiveries) during the fifth match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) against Australia in Sydney recently, after a starkly-contrasting hard-fought 40 in the first innings of the same game.
“I have always grown up hearing that you have fight it out. In Sydney, he played two different knocks in one single game. He got hit everywhere and scored a 40, it will be the least spoken innings of Rishabh Pant. It is very unfair.
“In the second innings, he scored a swashbuckling fifty, earning him a lot of praise. Everyone forgot that first innings and praised him for the second knock,” Ashwin said,
However, he could not emulate his exploits in the 2020-21 BGT, when he powered India to a famous win in the series-decider in Brisbane, whch was until then was known as Australia’s fortress.
Though Pant is rated for his extravagent shot-making, Ashwin added that he has one of the best defence in world cricket, rating him alongside Joe Root and Steve Smith.
“We must realise that Rishabh Pant rarely gets out playing a defence. He’s got one of the best defences in world cricket. Defence has become a challenging aspect, he has the best defence with a soft hand.
“I have bowled to him a lot in the nets, he’s not gotten out, he doesn’t get an edge, he doesn’t get LBW, he has the best defence. I have tried telling it to him. One opinion about Rishabh was that he plays a lot of shots, he has to fight it out in Test cricket,” Ashwin said.
Ashwin, 38, who retired from international cricket in the middle of the BGT, said he will continue to play the game.
“It was about me as an India cricketer, that’s over. But Ashwin as a cricketer is not over yet. I feel that there is still some distance for that. I feel that I can talk about my personal decision over a period of time. In fact, I want to document my entire story as an Indian cricketer.”