Former Indian cricketer WV Raman has advised the Indian keeper-batter Rishabh Pant to play the way he knows, as India locked horns with Sri Lanka in the first Test of the two-match series, which is currently underway in Galle.
It’s important to note that Pant, who averages 43.37 in his Test career, has often played an aggressive brand of cricket, which drew sharp criticism a lot of times during his career. However, Raman has defended the keeper-batter and requested him to play the way he bats.
“He has got to go and play the way he knows to bat, and that’s when he will be at his best. I think if he personally looks at playing more like a Test batter, or somebody where he insists that he bats like a normal Test batter, then it will be a case of him getting into a bit of a tangle,” Raman said to IANS.
“Rishabh Pant must be given a free license to play the way he plays. I think he is at his best when he plays his aggressive brand of cricket. He has won a few Test matches abroad from really dire situations. So, I think Rishabh Pant deserves to be given that license,” he added.
“It’s so easy to have the wonderful benefit of hindsight, isn’t it? But the fact of the matter is that we need to really slot and assess players based on their strengths and their limitations. If you are looking at Rishabh Pant’s strengths, as far as I am concerned, his strength is batting aggressively, going after the bowlers, getting runs quickly,” he noted.
“But if he were to be asked to bat defensively and in the conventional mode, then what would happen is that there will be a bit of a conflict between his mind and his trained reflexes because the mind will be telling him to try and take it easy. But his responses to a cricket ball will be faster than what his mind is telling him. So, that is not going to really help him,” he concluded.
From a statistical perspective, Pant has hit 97 sixes in 50 Tests and needs three more maximums to be the first Indian to hit 100 Test sixes. Moreover, the keeper-batter needs 220 more runs to become the first Indian wicketkeeper-batter to score 3,000 runs in the World Test Championship.
