IND vs SA 2019: “Rishabh Pant Should Bat at Number 5 and 6” – VVS Laxman

Rishabh Pant, the first-choice wicketkeeper in MS Dhoni’s absence, has been in the limelight for his poor batting performance. His aggressive game is not working for him at the No. 4 position, says former India player VVS Laxman, who feels Pant could bat in lower down the order.

Pant has been facing criticism for quite some time now. Even head coach Ravi Shastri has stated that his poor shot-selection let the team down. He even criticised his careless batting, saying he needs to understand the situation.

Not only this, the chairman of the selectors, MSK Prasad also said that they are keeping an eye to other wicket-keeper batsmen as well. They are – Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, KS Bharat etc. He thought that might suppress the workload of Rishabh Pant. However, he got support from Gautam Gambhir and other former players.

“The nature of Rishabh Pant’s batting is that he plays aggressive shots…unfortunately at the international level he is not able to succeed at the number four position,” VVS Laxman said on ‘Star Sports’. “Pant should bat at number 5 and 6, where you have the license to go out and express yourself and at the moment he doesn’t know the right method of scoring runs at number 4.”

Laxman further said that the youngster shouldn’t be put under too much pressure as this is common for every player.

“He is trying to evolve and trying to add different dimensions to his game by rotating the strike that we saw in the previous match but unfortunately, his shot selection at the start of the innings has not been great,” he added.

Laxman further said that Shreyas Iyer and all-rounder Hardik Pandya seem better options for the No.4 slot in the line-up. He added that the comparison with the great Mahendra Singh Dhoni also put Rishabh Pant under pressure.