"I can look to improve in certain areas" - Rishabh Pant on his dismal form against South Africa
Team India captain Rishabh Pant has had a dismal outing with the bat in the ongoing five-match T20I series against South Africa.
It was more of the same on Friday as he failed to convert a good start in the fourth game in Rajkot. He came out to bat after India were reduced to 24/2 and scored 17 off 23 balls before getting out to a rash shot.
Commenting on his poor form in this series at the post-match presentation ceremony, Rishabh Pant said:
"As an individual, I can look to improve in certain areas. That's the only thing I can do."
Love Rishabh pant as a cricketer but his t20 international numbers need to get better…
The southpaw has accumulated only 57 runs from four matches in this series, with a best score of 29. His poor returns in the middle order have hurt India badly in the last couple of matches.
However, Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik arrested the batting collapse in the penultimate game of the game with a 65-run partnership that propelled the hosts to a decent total. Lauding the efforts of the two batters, the 24-year-old stated:
"Really happy with the way Hardik put up a show and DK bhai coming in straight away and going for the kill. That partnership gave us something positive and put the bowlers under pressure."
Hardik scored 46 off 31 balls while Karthik smashed 55 off 27 deliveries to guide the Men in Blue to 169 runs, which was enough to level the series.
We talked about execution and here are the results - Rishabh Pant
Pant, who is in his first international series as captain, talked about executing better after defeats in the first two matches. The youngster stated that Friday's win was a result of playing better cricket.
He explained:
"We talked about execution and playing better cricket and here are the results. We can talk about toss but at the same time, whichever team plays better generally wins on that day."
bit.ly/INDvSA-4THT20I Clinical win for #TeamIndia in Rajkot! 👏 👏
The @RishabhPant17-led unit beat South Africa by 82 runs to level the series 2-2. 🙌 🙌
Scorecard ▶️ bit.ly/INDvSA-4THT20I
#INDvSA | @Paytm https://t.co/fyNIlEOJWl
With the series tied at 2-2, both teams have everything to play in the final game of the series. Rishabh Pant asserted that Team India will play with all their might to win the trophy. He concluded:
"It's not about thinking about that too much. Take the positives and move forward for the next match. Let's see what happens in Bangalore. We will try to give our hundred percent and win the trophy."
The final match of the series is scheduled to take place at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday (June 19).