Legendary West-Indies Cricketer, Brian Lara said that Indian wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant should be given permission to mature and have no extra pressure on him to perform.
Brian Lara And Kevin Pietersen Give Their Opinion On Rishabh Pant:
Lara stated while having a conversation with the Star Sports in the Nerolac Cricket Live show. He said, “Rishabh Pant came into the game with a lot of excitement, he had a lot of aggression and the Indian public expects someone to replace MS Dhoni as soon as possible and in the same fold but he is a totally different player.”
“I know the time is less and very important with the World Cup just having 8 or 9 months away and they may even go with another keeper but the excessive pressure on him is unnecessary,” Lara added.
Team India captain, Virat Kohli has also backed Rishabh Pant, stating that the 21-year-old cricketer has the team management’s confidence.
“We certainly have faith in Rishabh’s ability. As you say, it’s also the player’s responsibility to do well, but our responsibility is to give him space and to support him. He should get support and it is disrespectful if you don’t get it.” Kohli had stated.
“I agree with captain Virat Kohli on providing support to Pant as this is a very successful Indian team and I remember the West Indies team 30 years ago we had guys in there who was not performing good but they were kept in the team because the team was doing very well and we had all the great players in our team but you never heard about Gus Logie or Carl Hooper because they were not doing that well but they were given permission to mature and I feel Rishabh Pant should be allowed to mature,” Lara added.
The day Pant replaced the former skipper of Team India Dhoni in the limited-overs format, he has become the brunt of criticisms, whether it is for batting or wicket-keeping skills or be his role when it comes to DRS. In the current match of T20I in the national capital, the 21-year-old player received a lot of criticism after India lost their first-ever match against Team Bangladesh.
The former England batsman, Kevin Pietersen also agreed with Lara’s point of view on Pant and told that, “If you look at all the mistakes that Pant has made and the position he is in, with the team and Virat supporting him and with MS Dhoni out at the moment, he does have a long way to go to achieve his goals.”
“He will be looked upon on his performance and he is just 21, so will he be able to get some time to be an absolute good player in Indian cricket is what we need to see, and I think he actually can do it,” he stated.
