Former Australian cricket team skipper Ian Chappell praises Rishabh Pant and believes that India may find it difficult to score freely in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Test series due to the absence of Rishabh Pant.
Ian Chappell Praises Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant plays a crucial role in the last edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy held in Australia. India won the 4-match series by 2–1. Australia won the first match by 8 wickets and India won the second Test by 8 wickets.
While the 3rd Test went drawn both teams were in need of winning the last Test match which is scheduled to play at The Gabba – known as the fortress of Australian Test team.
India win the match by 3 wickets where Rishabh Pant played a crucial role. Pant scored 23 runs and 89* in the first and second innings respectively and won the player of the match award.
This was Australia’s first loss in a Test match at the Gabba in 32 years, and India became the first Asian team to win a Test match at the ground. Notably, Rishabh Pant scored his 1,000th run in Tests, the fastest by an Indian wicket-keeper.
Rishabh Pant set to miss the Border-Gavaskar Test 2023 following his near fatal car crash on December 30, 2022. The BCCI stated that he was going to miss most of the 2023 cricket season because he had suffered a serious knee injury.
In his absence, KS Bharat is expected to keep wickets for the hosts while Ishan Kishan was included in the squad as a back-up.
“India also have some points to prove, not the least to do with how Pant’s replacement performs. The main thing India will lose from Pant’s unavailability is an excellent run rate, which came from his belligerent aggression. No one can replace Pant’s desire to dominate bowlers, so India have to rely on their top batters not only performing but also maintaining a good strike rate,” Chappell wrote in his column for a sports website.
The Indian pitches are traditionally quite helpful to spinners and Chappell wrote that it will be extremely important for the top Indian batters to stop Nathan Lyon from picking up wickets at regular intervals.
“One of the main tasks for Indian players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara will be to establish mental superiority over Lyon. If Australia can’t rely on Lyon claiming regular wickets at an acceptable rate, their bowling will then depend greatly on the “big three,” he explained.
The first match of the Border-Gavaskar Test 2021-22 will be played on February 9 at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur.
