Veteran wicket-keeper batsman Parthiv Patel has expressed faith in flamboyant yet out-of-favour wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant’s abilities and hinted that playing domestic cricket might aid the latter.
“Rishabh Pant definitely has it in him, there’s no doubt about that. If I put myself into his shoes when I was 17-18, I didn’t have a good series, and going back to domestic cricket for a couple of years helped me a lot,” Patel was quoted as saying by FanCode.
Pant, 22, has been subjected to severe criticism in the recent past. Him repeatedly being given opportunities at the highest level with below par returns hadn’t gone down well with fans. Patel further revealed a constant conversation with Pant regarding his potential.
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“Every time I’ve met Rishabh, I’ve always told him that people are talking about you because you’ve talent in you. If you had no talent and if you weren’t talented, people wouldn’t have been talking about you, so keep that in mind. Sometimes, you have to go back to domestic cricket and just get that form back,” Patel said.
Parthiv Patel picks one as India’s limited-overs wicket-keeper
Despite being duly backed by the team management, Pant saw an injury getting him replaced by Lokesh Rahul in white-ball cricket.
In the 10 white-ball matches that Rahul has played as a specialist wicket-keeper batsman this year, he has scored 527 runs at an average of 65.87 and a strike rate of 125.77 including one century and four half-centuries to cement his spot for the time being.
Being asked to pick one between Rahul and Pant for the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia, Patel didn’t shy away from naming the former but considered him to be a “short-term thing”.
“At this point of time, KL Rahul. I feel Rahul is your short-term thing in a way if you’re thinking of the [ICC T20] World Cup. I think he’ll do the job for you during the World Cup, there’s no doubt about it,” Patel added.
