The last couple of months have been a game-changer for Indian wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant. The 23-year-old southpaw, who was written off by the critics after a set of poor performances, has made a scintillating comeback in International cricket. Credits to his exploits in Australia and England, Delhi Capitals have named Rishabh Pant as their skipper for the upcoming Indian Premier League season. Pant will replace injured Shreyas Iyer as the captain of DC, a team that has players like Steve Smith, R Ashwin and Shikhar Dhawan in it.
IPL 2021: Virender Sehwag applauds Rishabh Pant
Former Indian batting sensation Virender Sehwag has praised Pant for his outstanding show in the recently conducted series. Sehwag stated that Pant’s form is the biggest positive which came out of the series. The 42-year-old added that Pant has a positive mentality and it is important for him to stay in the Indian team. Sehwag said that Pant reminds the legendary cricketer of his younger days because of his carefree cricket.
“The biggest positive that has come out of the series is Rishabh Pant. Because when he comes to bat in the middle overs in the ODIs, and the 2nd powerplay comes up, he uses it perfectly. I feel it is important for him to stay in this team, he has quite a positive mindset. He reminds me of my early days. He doesn’t think much of what others are saying, he just goes out to bat,” said Sehwag in a chat with Cricbuzz.
Sehwag insisted that Pant can be the next superstar of India only if he learns to bat for the entire 50 overs and convert his 70s and 80s to 100s.
“But only if he learns how to bat for full 50 overs, and bats till the end, and learns to convert the 70s-80s into 100s, he could be the next superstar for India. The wicket was very good, the ground was short. Sometimes, you will get slow wickets, and you will not be able to hit your shots. How he gets out of those situations is very important to know, so he must know that.”
“In the IPL, when he was not able to score runs, he must have changed something which was why he was able to score runs in Tests. But in ODIs, and T20Is, if he learns to bat till the end, and make the most of his abilities, then he can be the next superstar in white-ball cricket,” concluded Sehwag.
