Sanjay Manjrekar Slammed Rishabh Pant: The 21-year-old Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant has once again found himself at the receiving end of criticism and trolling after his horror show behind the stumps.
On Day of the third Test match, Rishabh Pant disappointed many as he dropped two important catches. Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Siraj became the two unlucky bowlers, while Pucovski turned out to be super-lucky.
Former Indian batsman Sanjay Manjrekar slammed Rishabh Pant for dropping catches. He claimed that the misfields have more to do with his lack of concentration than the poor technique as a wicketkeeper.
During a discussion on the Sony Sports network, Sanjay Manjrekar highlighted that Rishabh Pant is a topic of debate in the commentary panel, who agrees that he has been preferred over Wriddhiman Saha because of being a better batsman. He said:
“In the commentators lounge, there is a raging debate about Rishabh Pant. And the majority feeling is that he is a good batsman because of which he is playing, and there is no doubt who is the better keeper between Saha and Pant,”
He also pointed out the fact that team India cannot afford to persist with Rishabh Pant if he fails to improve as a keeper. He said:
“But it is not that India can make do with Pant keeping in this way. Both Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar also agree that he has to improve his keeping.”
He added:
“If you see the dropped catch against the spinner, I feel it is more a problem with his focus than his technique. There was not much of a deflection, and when the ball comes and hits his gloves, it means his mind was somewhere else,”
Manjrekar concluded by saying that he would have asked Rishabh Pant to concentrate more on his keeping rather than giving instructions to bowlers. He said:
“When he talks from behind the wickets and gives advice to Ashwin, I get worried that he should talk less and focus more because keeping requires the greatest focus. If while talking, he can focus and take catches, I have no problem. If I was his captain, I would have told him to keep his mouth shut, eyes open, and focus more,”
