Rahul Dravid hails Rishabh Pant as an integral part of India’s T20I squad
The 5-match T20I series between India and South Africa finished without a clear winner as the decider in Bengaluru was washed out. India’s captain Rishabh Pant was under great fire during the series for his leadership qualities and for the lack of runs with the bat. However, the Indian head coach, Rahul Dravid has backed his 24-year-old superstar, calling him an ‘integral part’.
“I thought he had a pretty good IPL. He might not have looked good on the averages, but his strike rate was really good. He looked to move that up a little bit – to where he was probably three years ago. We’re going to hope that we can get those kinds of numbers from him at the international level as well. In that process, he might go wrong in a few games.”
“But he remains an integral part of our batting line-up. We know what he does with the power he has. The fact that he is a left-hander is very important to us as well in the middle overs. And he has played some good knocks. Of course, personally, he would have liked to have scored a few more runs but it’s not that concerning. For us, he is certainly a very big part of our plans going ahead in the next few months,” said Dravid.
India were trailing 0-2 in the series after the first two games but recovered to equalise the series. This was Pant’s maiden international assignment as the Indian captain with KL Rahul being subsided due to an injury. Batting five times in the series, the wicketkeeper could manage only 58 runs at an average of 14.5. His run tally is the least among Indian batters.
The more worrying part of Pant’s dismal series was his mode of dismissal. The South Africans concentrated on bowling wide lines to the left-hander and he could not resist the temptation of going after them.
Pant shall feature in the rescheduled 5th Test against England and will miss the T20I series against Ireland. Despite his recent bad patch, the wicketkeeper-batsman walks into India’s T20 World Cup squad without a doubt. He will need to up his game in T20I internationals considerably if he is to make a positive impact.
