‘Rishabh Pant has to justify the faith or else...’: VVS Laxman has a message and warning

When India take on West Indies in the upcoming T20I series, there will be spotlight on Rishabh Pant - the young man has been under pressure to find form and with the inclusion of Sanju Samson, he needs to be more consistent in his role. Former India batsman VVS Laxman believes that the presence of Samson in the squad was a message sent out to Pant to start performing.

“The team management and the selection committee have passed on a strong message that we got a backup in the form of Sanju Samson. Rishabh Pant has been given a lot of opportunities and I’m sure that they will be communicating and giving him that security within that group,” Laxman told Star Sports.

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“But then ultimately the player has to justify the faith the team management, the selection committee has been imposing on him,” he said.

“Unfortunately, Rishabh hasn’t been able to do that, but he is that X factor. I still feel that he is an exclusive batsman who can come and change the course of the match just by his ability to hit good balls out of the park.”

Pant was hogging all the headlines not so long back, but then a string of low scores has seen him lose his place in Test side and now, he need to start scoring runs in order to hold on to his place in the shortest format of the game. Laxman also believes that MS Dhoni would want to see and observe the performance of both Pant and Samson which might influence his own decision.

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“I think MS Dhoni will wait with patience to see the performance of Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson. Whenever he gets an opportunity and he will take a call after the IPL because the way I am seeing it, MS Dhoni is preparing himself for the IPL. I’m sure he will do well like he has done whenever he plays and leads CSK,” said Laxman about Dhoni’s future.