India vs West Indies: ‘Nothing like natural game’ - Rishabh Pant speaks after maiden half-century
Ind vs WI: When Pant got to his half-century, he looked up towards the heavens and quietly muttered a few words to himself, the dressing room was chuffed.
In ‘Thala’ MS Dhoni territory, Rishabh Pant found his form. In Dhoni’s territory, he made the crowd chant his name and in his territory, he finally served a reminder about his worth and pedigree. When he rocked up to the crease, India were three down - KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were back in the pavilion, the pitch was a sluggish one and West Indies were bowling on. It was here he showed restraint and took his time to suss the situation.
Yes, there was the odd stroke of flamboyance, but it was all very controlled. When he got to his half-century, he looked up towards the heavens and quietly muttered a few words to himself, the dressing room was chuffed. Finally, Pant had a score to back all the talk of talent. However, he fell trying to clear the ropes and was caught in the deep, but that intent was perhaps the need of the hour and well, the execution could have been better.
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Speaking after the match, the young man said that he always looks to play according to the situation and that, there is nothing called a natural game. “There is nothing like the natural game you have to bat according to the situation or team demand. You can only be good if you bat according to the situation. I want to focus on my process as a player. You have to believe in yourself. I’m only focusing on what I can do whatever team management decides is good for the team,” Pant told reporters in the post-match conference.
“Sometimes it is important when crowd support you because as an individual I was thinking of scoring big runs but I was not getting there. I’m not saying I got there but I’m just trying to improve everyday. As a team point of view, whatever I can do to help my team win and to have a good score on the scoreboard that’s what I was focusing and in the end I got some runs,” he added.
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Along with his IPL skipper, Shreyas Iyer, Pant built the much-needed partnership of 114-run for the fourth wicket.
“Personally, if I play for India every inning is important for me. As a youngster, I just want to learn and improve myself each and every day of cricket I’m playing,” Pant said.
“When I was batting with Iyer and our motive was to build a partnership and to take the game to 35-40 overs. As long the partnership will last we will capitalise it more in the end,” he added.
Despite a relatively steep target, West Indies cruised to a win thanks to centuries from Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope. Both the teams will now face each other in the second game at Visakhapatnam on December 18.
