Rishabh Pant.
Rishabh Pant drops Will Pucovski. (Photo: Twitter)

Rishabh Pant’s place in the Indian Test team is being questioned once again after the wicketkeeper dropped two regulation catches on a frustrating day for Team India in the ongoing third Test against Australia in Sydney. On both the occasions, he dropped debutant Will Pucovski who went on to score a fine fifty.

The first time was an outside edge off Ravichandran Ashwin’s bowling in the 22nd over that Rishabh Pant failed to latch on to when Pucovski was batting on 26. The second one was an easier catch when Pucovski, while batting on 32, edged a short delivery from Mohammad Siraj behind the stumps. The ball was landing behind Rishabh Pant but it was an easy catch.

Parthiv Patel
Parthiv Patel (Credits: File photo)

The wicketkeeper, however, made a mess of the catch and spilled it. Not only that, he also claimed the catch before replays showed that the ball had landed on the ground before Rishabh Pant picked it up. And with the youngster performing poorly behind the stumps once again, former India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel has said that he has to work on his wicketkeeping skills to be able to keep on turning tracks or difficult wickets.

“There are a couple of things he needs to work on if he has to keep in Test cricket on turning wickets or difficult wickets. He has to work on soft hands and he also needs to point his fingers downwards. If you see the catch that was dropped (off Ashwin), his fingers were pointed forward instead down. He has to work on getting his fingers down.

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“He went at it with a bit of hard hands. If you observe closely, his hands aren’t together, they keep separating. This has happened often and he’s also been working on it,” Parthiv Patel said on Cricbuzz Chatter.

Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha
Rishabh Pant (Credits: Twitter)

Former Australia captain and Rishabh Pant’s head coach at Delhi Capitals Ricky Ponting has also criticised the India star. The legendary batsman has said that the wicketkeeper needs to work considerably on his wicket-keeping skills.

“The one’s (dropped catches) today are two that should be taken, simple as that. I’ve said it all along, the knock on Rishabh is always going to be on his keeping.

“Since his debut in Test cricket, he’s dropped more catches than any other keeper in the world. That highlights he has got some work to do with his keeping,” Ricky Ponting told cricket.com.au.

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