“Rishabh Pant Needs to Bat where He is Not Left in Two Minds”: Zaheer Khan

It is now clear that the Indian team management has started to lose patience with Rishabh Pant. This is especially after head coach Ravi Shastri and batting coach Vikram Rathour criticised his batting over the poor shot selection. The 21 years old smashed Test hundreds in England and Australia. His century sealed his place in the team despite failures in the limited-overs formats.

However, Wriddhiman Saha is back in the hunt and expected to keep the wickets at home against South Africa. That means Rishabh Pant would no longer remain a constant for the Test series as well. His poor show has made him think about his place in the squad. Even the chairman of the selectors, MSK Prasad also said that they are keeping an eye on the likes of Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, KS Bharat etc. to keep the things easy for Pant.

But the former players like Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and now Zaheer Khan believe the current team management should take responsibility for Rishabh Pant’s current problems and confusion.

“The team management should try and use him where you get the best out of him. I think his natural style is to attack. So he needs to be used where he is not left in two minds, where he knows the only thing he needs to do is the attack. If he is used in such situations, it would be good for him,” Zaheer Khan said to India Today.

Zaheer Khan believes with time Rishabh Pant will have a better understanding of the game. Pant was named in the World Cup squad as a replacement for injured opener Shikhar Dhawan and he played in the middle order after Vijay Shankar’s injury. Pant, however, has been batting at no.4 during the West Indies series and against South Africa at home where he has failed miserably.

“Everyone knows the ability this player has. I think everyone has to try and make things easier for him,” the former India pacer concluded.