"Mahi bhai has played a lot of cricket here, but I want to be myself" - Rishabh Pant reacts to comparison with MS Dhoni after Chennai Test
Team India keeper-batter Rishabh Pant has played down constant comparisons with his legendary predecessor MS Dhoni. Speaking after the first Test against Bangladesh at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday, September 22, the southpaw said he wants to be himself.
Team India beat Bangladesh by 280 runs in the Chepauk Test in a little over three days. While all-rounder and local lad Ravichandran Ashwin was the Player of the Match for scoring a hundred and claiming a five-fer. Pant also made a tremendous comeback to Test cricket. Playing his first red-ball match for India since December 2022, he scored 39 and 109.
Incidentally, the comeback happened in Chennai, which is his idol Dhoni's home ground in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Speaking after the Test match, though, he dismissed comparisons with the former Indian captain. The 26-year-old commented (as quoted by NDTV):
"This is CSK's home ground. Mahi bhai has played a lot of cricket here. But, for me, like I have said before, I want to be myself. I don't focus on what's being said or what's happening around me. I keep things simple and focus on giving my best. The atmosphere here was amazing, and I really enjoyed it."
After failing to convert his start in the first innings, Pant added 167 runs for the fourth wicket with Shubman Gill (119*) in the second innings against Bangladesh. India set the opponents a target of 515 and bowled them out for 234.
"Kept my thought process simple" - Pant on Chennai ton
While India were in a dominant position after knocking over Bangladesh for 149 in the first innings, the visitors fought back well to reduce the hosts to 67-3 in the second innings.
Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli all fell cheaply. Pant, however, played a fine knock and put India back on top in the company of Gill.
"I kept my thought process simple and played according to the situation. They started with spinners on Day 3, but I don't go out with a predetermined way of playing," Pant said.
"I knew we had lost three wickets, so I was conscious of not taking too many risks to avoid exposing the tail after [KL] Rahul bhai. The pitch was good for batting, and I wanted to make the most of it and score a hundred."
Having played 34 Test matches, Pant has scored 2,419 runs at an average of 44.79, with six hundreds and 11 half-centuries.