Will Rishabh Pant be selected for 20-20 World Cup 2020? India’s head coach answers
Rahul Dravid (Image Source: Rahul Dravid)
The five-match T20I home series between India and South Africa ended with a scoreline of 2-2 as the fifth and final match in Bengaluru got abandoned due to rain. In the absence of KL Rahul due to his groin injury, Rishabh Pant led the Team and he was on the verge of winning his first series as a captain.
However, it could not happen due to the cancellation of the match. In the first two matches, Pant’s captaincy abilities were the talk of the town for his bizarre decision during those matches. It cost India both the matches. But, in the next two matches, he came back with some good plans and it worked. He also registered the biggest margin of the win over the proteas in the T20I match.
As an individual batter, he failed to score a good amount of runs again in this series as he scored only 58 runs in five matches only at an average of 14.50. But, the Indian coach Rahul Dravid came out to support him by quoting him as “an integral part” of the future despite his poor run of form.
“Certainly, he is a very big part of our plans going ahead in the next few months,” – Rahul Dravid
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Rahul Dravid said that Pant would have liked to score more but it was not concerning to him. He said: “Personally, he would have liked to score a few more runs but it is not concerning him. Certainly, he is a very big part of our plans going ahead in the next few months,”
The current Indian coach also added that it becomes difficult to judge a player just based on two or three games while batting in the middle order. “I just don’t want to be critical. In the middle overs, you need people to play a slightly attacking brand of cricket, to take the game on a little more. Sometimes it’s very hard to judge it based on two or three games,” he said.
Dravid also praised his strike rate during the recently concluded Indian T20 League. “I think he had a pretty good Indian T20 League in terms of strike rate even though it might not have looked good on averages. We are hoping that we can get those numbers from him at the international level. In the process (of playing an attacking game), he might go wrong in a few games but he remains an integral part of our batting line-up with the power he has, and the fact that he is a left-hander is important to us in the middle overs, he played some good knocks,” Dravid concluded.
