‘Give Rishabh Pant a bit of breathing space’ - Sunil Gavaskar to Indian management
Gavaskar too believes Pant needed to work on his shot selection, but also cautioned him from allowing external influences to impact his game too much.
Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar is not too happy with the way the Indian management is dealing with Rishabh Pant. The former opener believes that India could send him in at No. 5 in limited-overs cricket to allow the wicketkeeper-batsman to play his aggressive, natural game.
“Giving him a bit of breathing space by slotting him at No. 5 could also help, for at that number he will invariably come in to bat where his aggressive batting is needed from the start rather than when he has to build his and the team’s innings,” Gavaskar wrote in Sunday Mid-Day.
“Just like a little tweak in the grip can make a world of difference to a player as a bowler or as batsman, so also a little tweak in the batting order could change the fortunes of a player,” he further added.
Gavaskar too believes Pant needed to work on his shot selection, but also cautioned him from allowing external influences to impact his game too much. Also, he wanted the management to give him confidence rather than a public dressing down.
“With experience he will be better at shot selection and will be more consistent but right now he needs a hand around his shoulders rather than a public dressing down. The most important thing for the young man to understand is that he has to play according to the situation and not according to the expectations of the public,” he further wrote.
As per Gavaskar, Pant needs to rejig his game and utilise all the data available to him from all the recorded matches.
“The talented young man is going through the second-season blues which most players go through. In the first season, there’s not that much information about the player and so he can sail through without much difficulty but by the time the second season starts, there is more data and info available not just through the recorded matches but also through the cricketing grapevine. So the opposition is better primed,” Gavaskar wrote.
