With his two centuries and one half century in the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy between India and England, Indian wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant has made a number of records. With three Test matches still to go in the series, Pant is currently the third highest scorer in the series with a total of 342 runs. Pant had become only the second wicket keeper after Zimbabwe’s Andy Flower to score hundreds in both innings in a Test match with his twin hundreds in the first Test at Headingley. Former Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has termed Pant as a better player than former Australian wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist and has called Pant to be compared with some of the best batters in the world.
“I want to benchmark Rishabh Pant as per standard of Rishabh Pant. He is a fabulous player. He is not Adam Gilchrist. Many people compare him with Adam Gilchrist. Adam Gilchrist didn’t have this good defense. Rishabh Pant has a high quality of defense. Rishabh Pant should be compared with some of the best batters not to be compared with Adam Gilchrist. Adam Gilchrist is a fine batter. He was a very good glove man who took games away batting at seven. Rishabh pant is batting at number five. Rishabh Pant can do Pant things,” Ashwin said while speaking in his Youtube channel Ash ki Baat.
While Indian captain Shubman Gill amassed 430 runs in the second Test at Edgbaston, Pant played a breezy knock of 65 runs off 58 balls in the second innings, when India needed some quick runs. It was Pant’s 16th half-century in Tests and the Indian wicket-keeper had also become the first Asian wicket-keeper batsman to score 2,000 Test runs in SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia). While praising Pant, Ashwin also highlighted the fact that he wants Pant to play with constraint too. Ashwin was referring to England spinner Shoaib Bashir’s removing Rishabh Pant in the first innings at Edgbaston, where Pant fell after holing out to long-on. “I don’t want Rishabh Pant to play like Shubman Gill. But I want that constraint and restraint from Rishabh. When you cast a fishing net, the fish also knows that it’s a risk, but why does it come because there is a bait. Rishabh Pant then bats and what Shoaib Bashir does, he throws it outside, he keeps long on behind. I want to see Rishabh hit, I also want that entertainment, but I also want him to make a fool of the bowler. You know what’s the plan, his mind is in the plan. Don’t get trapped. Hit something else. Like Ravi bhai said, if you don’t have the field for reverse sweep, then hit there. Don’t go into a trap. I really want that. I want to see Rishabh Pant batting on 143 and how he is making a 200. If Rishabh Pant bats like that, India can declare the innings at any time,” added Ashwin.
Indian batting coach Sitanshu Kotak too had talked about Pant’s approach in the series earlier this week. “Rishabh actually talks a lot about what he does, when he does, why he does. But he is someone who doesn’t like to talk too much during his innings because he feels that it changes his mindset and he takes the wrong decisions. That’s only when he’s batting. Apart from that, he talks about other batters also. He makes proper planning. It’s not easy to score hundreds without any planning,” Kotak had said in a press conference.
