Rishabh Pant greater than MS Dhoni? Dinesh Karthik disagrees with experts on India's greatest Test wicketkeeper

Former India cricketer Dinesh Karthik has opened up on the debate of India's greatest Test wicketkeeper. Karthik himself was a wicketkeeper and has shared the field alongside both Dhoni and Pant.

Rishabh Pant recently smashed his sixth Test hundred against Bangladesh in the first Test at Chennai. With this knock, he has equaled the great MS Dhoni for the no. of Test hundreds.

This was Rishabh Pant's first Test match since his comeback from the life-threatening accident in December 2022. Despite playing a Test match after a long time, he hardly looked out of form and smashed a brilliant hundred in the second innings of the match.

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Rishabh Pant vs MS Dhoni! Dinesh Karthik disagrees with experts on India's greatest Test wicketkeeper

After Rishabh Pant's exploits in the Chennai Test, experts like Sanjay Manjrekar and Aakash Chopra called him the greatest for India in red-ball cricket. However, Dinesh Karthik disagreed with this opinion and requested the experts to give some more time to Pant to prove his credentials.

"It's very unacceptable to say that he's played 34 Tests and he's already India's greatest wicketkeeper batter. Let's take time, let's not jump to conclusions but definitely he's on course for sure and he will finish as India's greatest ever wicketkeeper," Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz.

While MS Dhoni scored 6 hundreds in 90 Tests, Rishabh Pant has now equaled this record in just 34 Tests. Pant is young now and is likely to achieve many more milestones in the future. Adding to this, Pant also has at least a hundred in all the SENA countries.

"Don't discount MS Dhoni's credentials" - Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik further reminded everyone of MS Dhoni's incredible records in Tests. He claimed that MS Dhoni was not only a safe keeper but also a prolific run-scorer and a captain who took India to a World Test Championship mace, which was given to the No. 1 Test team during that period.

"Don't discount (MS) Dhoni's credentials as a wicketkeeper as well. He not only kept brilliantly, batted and scored runs when it mattered very very well for India but also he led India to a World Test Championship mace which is becoming number 1. So you got to give all that weightage as well when you speak about a player all round," he added.

Both Rishabh Pant and MS Dhoni have the joint-most no. of hundreds in Tests for an India wicketkeeper. Pant has an incredible record in Test cricket where he has scored 2419 runs in 34 Tests at an average of 44.79. He has a strike rate of 74.11 in the format.

Clearly, Pant has proved to be a game-changer for India, especially in Tests. While his record is excellent in Test cricket, he is yet to find his groove in ODIs and T20Is. In the upcoming years, he is likely to be an integral part of the team in all the formats.

India will play a home Test series against New Zealand after the ongoing Test series against Bangladesh. Afterwards, they will travel to Australia for a five-match Test series.