"Rishabh Pant has got to play the way he reads the game" - Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar believes Rishabh Pant should continue batting the way he reads the game.
Rishabh Pant has played exhilarating knocks in India's last three Test matches. His innings helped Team India win and draw the Brisbane and Sydney Tests respectively. However, he was unable to help his side avoid defeat in the first Test against England.
While speaking on Star Sports, Sunil Gavaskar observed that Rishabh Pant should continue batting in his own inimitable style, but should be a little judicious in his strokeplay.
"I think he has got to play the way he reads the game. Shot selection is always the key. You have a good shot selection, you will play longer innings, you will play impact innings and that's all Pant needs to do. He is a young chap and you should allow him the fact that sometimes he might get just a little bit carried away," said Gavaskar.
Pant has scored 1190 runs in 29 Test innings at an impressive average of 44.07 thus far.
Rishabh Pant should not try to hit the off-spinners over extra cover: Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar also wants Rishabh Pant to refrain from hitting off-spinners over extra cover.
"The only thing I will say to him is that when he is attacking an off-spinner on a pitch there is a little bit of purchase, he should try and hit him straight and not try and hit him over extra cover because with that the bat face is opening up and therefore he is slicing the ball and not quite middling it," observed Gavaskar.
The cricketer-turned-commentator highlighted that Rishabh Pant would have avoided his dismissals against Nathan Lyon and Dom Bess if he had tried to hit them straight down the ground.
"If he is trying to hit him over long-off he will be able to middle it, but when he is trying to hit over extra cover the bat face naturally opens up, he is reaching out and therefore he is hitting the ball up in the air. He got out that way to Nathan Lyon and missed out on a hundred. He missed out on a hundred or maybe even more over here. So that's the only thing he has got to watch out for. Otherwise, he should play the way he knows," concluded Gavaskar.
Rishabh Pant was particularly severe on Jack Leach during his 91-run knock in Chennai, with all five of his sixes coming against the left-arm spinner. But he was dismissed the first time he tried to play a big shot against off-spinner Bess.
Having been dismissed by Nathan Lyon in a similar fashion Down Under, the swashbuckling wicket-keeper-batsman would do well to listen to Sunil Gavaskar's advice.