The Indian head coach, Rahul Dravid finally talked about the dismissal performance of young keeper-batter Rishabh Pant in the ongoing 3-match Test series against South Africa in Johannesburg. Rishabh Pant, who was emerging out as a match-winner for the Indian side, has found himself at the receiving end of criticism after his disappointing performances.
Coming into the game, a lot was expected from Rishabh Pant, however, the keeper-batsman failed to leave a mark with his bat yet again as he just threw away his wicket out of aggression to bring South Africa right back into the match.
While he was dismissed on 17 runs in the first innings, he was dismissed for an embarrassing 3-ball duck by the lethal Proteas bowler Kagiso Rabada in the second innings of the game.
Later, after the match ended in South Africa’s favor, Indian head coach Rahul Dravid talked about Rishabh Pant and his poor batting performance. Rahul advised Pant to gauge the pitch and playing conditions initially by spending some time on the pitch instead of going all-guns-blazing from the start of the game itself. He said:
“In a sense, we know Rishabh plays positively, and he plays in a particular manner and it has got him a little bit of success. But yeah, ofcourse there are times when we are going to have some conversations with him.”
He added:
“It is just about the selection of timing to play that way. No one is going to tell Rishabh not to be a positive player or an aggressive player, but sometimes it is just a question about picking and choosing the time to do that. When you just come in, giving yourself a bit more time might be a bit more advisable. “
Further, Rahul Dravid hoped that Rishabh Pant will learn from these experiences in difficult situations and will emerge out as a better player in the future. He said:
“But in the end, we know what we are getting with Rishabh Pant. He is a really positive player, he is someone who can change the course of the game quickly, so naturally, we won’t take that away from him and ask him to become something different. He is still learning and will hopefully keep improving and get better”
