“Rishabh Pant needs to develop patience, cannot just walk down the track to bowlers” - Salman Butt
Former Pakistan skipper Salman Butt reckons that India’s young wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant will continue to struggle against the moving ball unless he displays some patience and works on his technique.
Rishabh Pant has managed only 87 runs at an average of 17.40 in the three Tests against England so far. His vulnerability outside the off stump has been exposed, as he has been constantly dismissed, hanging his bat at deliveries in the corridor of uncertainty.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Butt opined that the left-hander doesn’t have the technique and temperament to make an impact in English conditions as of now. He said:
“Rishabh Pant doesn’t have the technique to succeed in English conditions. He cannot just walk down the track to bowlers. He can survive for a while like this or may play one or two good knocks. But, Rishabh Pant cannot become a successful Test batsman playing this way. He needs to develop some patience and also work on his defensive technique.
“Rishabh Pant has a lot of shots but his defensive mechanism is not strong enough for Test cricket, especially in such conditions. In India, he can taste success, and Australia as well, because the ball doesn’t swing a lot. But wherever the ball swings or seams, Rishabh Pant will find it very difficult to tackle the challenges with the kind of technique he currently possesses.”
Butt added that in the second innings at Headingley, not just Rishabh Pant, but most of the other batters also got out needlessly playing at deliveries. The former Pakistan captain pointed out:
“Of the dismissals in the second innings, be it Kohli or Rishabh Pant, most got out to balls that could have been left alone. Only Ravindra Jadeja got a delivery that he had to play at. Cheteshwar Pujara, on the other hand, left a ball that he should have played. Team India's batting collapses are getting far too consistent. In the first innings, they got all out for 78 and in the second innings, they lost eight wickets for under 70 runs. Pujara could not add to his 91, Virat Kohli also fell after scoring his fifty. Ajinkya Rahane is the vice-captain but (he also failed).”
Want to give Rishabh Pant all the space to play his game: Virat Kohli
Despite his failures with the bat on the ongoing tour, Indian captain Virat Kohli has defended Rishabh Pant. He pointed out that questions were raised about Pujara as well before this Test. Speaking at the post-match conference, Kohli said:
“Well, again, as I said, with one loss I can’t assess or start analyzing that as a captain. Definitely the management isn’t going to start doing that because we are not failing as a team, as in, consistently we are not losing. We certainly failed in this game and we take responsibility for that.”
“And similar conversations were being initiated about Pujara as well which seem to have disappeared after yesterday so we want to give Rishabh Pant, as I have said before, all the space to play his game and understand the situations and take responsibility like is expected of everyone else in the batting order,” he added.
23-year-old Rishabh Pant has played 24 Tests so far and has scored 1490 runs at an average of 40.27 with three hundreds and six fifties.