Virat Kohli Finally Breaks Silence On Rishabh Pant’s Lack Of Runs: Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant is receiving criticism from all corners due to his inconsistent performances off-late. The sensational keeper-batsman was being considered as one of the threats to the England cricket team, however, he has failed to leave a mark with his performance. So far, he has only scored just 87 runs, with 37 being the highest runs in the ongoing 5-match Test series against England.
Despite his inconsistency, Rishabh has been backed by Virat Kohli and the team management and has been given several chances.
On Day 3 of the third Test match, Pant’s patience was tested once again and he failed to mark his presence yet again. He walked in to bat after skipper Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara fell prey to England’s Ollie Robinson early in the morning session. He was dismissed by Ollie Robinson for just 1.
The Indian team was bundled out for 278 runs, eventually losing the third Test match by an innings and 76 runs.
Later, while addressing the post-match virtual conference, Kohli talked about Pant’s performance and said that the team management will give him all the space that he needs in the rest of the five-Test match series against England. When asked about Pant’s lack of runs was creating problems for the lower middle-order. He said:
“Well again, as I said, with one loss I cannot assess that or I cannot start analysing that as a captain. Definitely the management is not going to start analysing that because we are not failing as a team. Consistently we are not losing, this is what I mean, when I say that, we failed this game as team definitely and we take responsibility for that.”
He added:
“Similar conversations were being initiated about (Cheteshwar) Pujara as well, which seemed to have disappeared after yesterday, so we want to give, as I said in the past, Rishabh all the space to play his game and understand situations and take responsibility like it is expected of everyone else in the batting order,”
As per Virat Kohli, players can’t be judged all the time on the basis of numbers. He said:
“You can’t judge people all the time on numbers, and whether they are succeeding or failing, that is not how you make a team. There is still time in this series. After two more Test matches, we can look back and reflect and analyse, okay these are the areas that were not quite right but at this moment, it’s not the time,”
