Rishabh Pant's spot in danger? Coach Ravi Shastri says not a natural wicket-keeper

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Rishabh Pant

It has been a strange few months for Rishabh Pant. From being touted as the next big thing in Indian cricket, to being viewed as MS Dhoni's replacement in all the three formats, to losing to out his spot in Test as well as limited-overs side, the young man has received only contrasting signals from the team management.

Now, India's head coach Ravi Shastri has said that Rishabh Pant is not a natural wicketkeeper and that he needed to work hard on this part of his game. He was selected as wicket-keeper batsman for the New Zealand series, but now, KL Rahul has overtaken him in the role. Ravi Shastri gave a byte to Sportstar, in which he said "He has a reputation of being a devastating player, big hitter. That is what he has to get used to. Every time he comes to bat, the crowd expects sixes off everything. This is where he has to manage his game properly,"

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"He has to work really hard on his wicketkeeping. He is not a natural keeper but he's got all that talent which goes to waste if he doesn't work on his keeping. I think he has realised that and if you see him now, he is working extremely hard on his keeping as well."

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Shastri also spoke about his own role in the side and said that it was his job to keep reminding the players about the basic things they need to work on day in and day out.

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"Not at all. That is one of the coach's main job. To be a parrot. You might repeat the same thing day in day out. But that's my job, reminder. It should be ingrained in you. Muscle memory."

He explained his methodology "You know telling them the things you have to do, keep letting them know how good they are so that they don't drop guard". I say, "You guys are setting standards. You will set standards for the next generation which will be very hard to beat."

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