Rishabh Pant, who has been booed and mocked by the Indian cricket fans with the chants of “Dhoni Dhoni” has finally made a much-needed comeback in the first ODI against West Indies. With an impressive knock of 71 runs, Rishabh Pant captivated the Chennai crowd.
The young wicket-keeper batsman turned out to be the top-scorer for team India for the day. However, his knock failed to help India win the first ODI as West Indies took a 1-0 lead in the three-ODI series.
After the match, Rishabh Pant thanked the crowd at MA Chidambaram Stadium for supporting him and finally opened up about how he feels when the crowd mocks him by chanting “Dhoni-Dhoni”. He said:
“Sometimes it’s important when crowd supports you. From an individual point of view, I was trying to improve myself every day but I wasn’t getting there. I am not saying I got there, but I try to improve.”
Rishabh Pant was under the scanner of critics for a long time because of his inconsistency. He was converting every opportunity given to him into failure. Rishabh Pant also failed to deceive in the just concluded T20Is against the West Indies, where he scored only 51 runs.
Finally Everyone is shouting Rishabh Pant instead of Dhoni. #KnowledgeableChennaiCrowd pic.twitter.com/mCHLrQzotB
— Sundar G (@SunOfGan) December 15, 2019
A big section of Indian cricket fans are demanding his ouster from the team and the inclusion of Sanju Samson. While the critics continued to slam his batting, Rishabh Pant said he doesn’t believe in “anything like a natural game”. He said:
“I’ve realised after playing a fair bit at international level that unlike at amateur levels of cricket, there isn’t anything like a natural game. At the international level, you have to play according to the situation or what the team demands,”
He added:
“It’s my learning curve, I’m thinking that. From team’s point of view, whatever I can do to help my team win, to have a good score on the scoreboard, that’s what I was focussing on. In the end, I got some runs,”
