Team India’s young wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant’s heroics during India’s last tour of Australia was undoubtedly a career-defining moment for him. Pant was struggling to cement his place in the Indian team due to his inconsistent performances before that series, having lost his place to KL Rahul. However, his stunning performance after India’s batting collapse in the first Test match of the series against Australia (36 all-out in the second innings in Adelaide) prompted the team management to pick Pant ahead of anyone else.
Pant went on to play some of the best performances of his career in that tour, with a brilliant 97 in the third Test and a match-winning unbeaten 89-run innings in Gabba and since then there have been no turning backs for the cricketer.
Rishabh Pant is currently a part of the 15-member Indian squad going for the upcoming t20 World Cup 2022. And ahead of the high-voltage tournament, former fielding coach R. Sridhar revealed that Rishabh Pant would miss batting sessions just to improve on his wicketkeeping skills during India’s tour of Australia.
Speaking to cricket.com, as quoted by Hindustan Times, R Sridhar said that Pant has improved a lot as a wicketkeeper and the effort he put in during the Australian tour was mind-boggling.
Sridhar revealed that Pant would miss batting sessions to work on his keeping skills. He said: “He is come up leaps and bounds as a wicketkeeper. The way he has worked to improve his wicketkeeping… I was very fortunate to be a small part of his journey and to see him evolve as a wonderful wicketkeeper, especially in subcontinent conditions,”
He added: “His keeping abilities had always remained in question, especially against wicketkeepers on turning tracks. Covid came, he worked hard at home, he came into the IPL and he didn’t have a great IPL, he lost his place to KL Rahul as wicketkeeper. He would remember that as a defining moment of his career because that made him work harder. In adversity, he found out better of himself.”
“He worked hard so hard on that Australian tour. It was mind-boggling. He sacrificed batting sessions to improve his wicketkeeping. I don’t see any modern-day cricketer doing that. He did that. He went drill after drill to improve his footwork, glove-work, reaction skills, hand-eye coordination skills. I can write a book about it. I can go on and on. He worked really hard,”
