T20 World Cup 2024: Rishabh Pant or Sanju Samson? Tom Moody reveals who will start in India's Playing 11
Published - 03 May 2024, 10:58 AM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 01:11 AM
Former Australian cricketer Tom Moody has backed Rishabh Pant to start as India's wicket-keeper batsman ahead of Sanju Samson at the ICC T20 World Cup this June.
Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson both were included in India's 15-man squad by the chief selection committee led by Ajit Agarkar 3 days ago. The duo will be travelling to the USA and West Indies for the 9th T20 WC edition with Samson set to witness the mega T20 event for the first time in his career. He was left out of the squad during the 2021 and 2022 T20 WC.
Why did Tom Moody back Rishabh Pant to start ahead of Sanju Samson?
While speaking to Star Sports yesterday before Rohit Sharma and Ajit Agarkar addressed the media, Tom Moody had his say about India's keeper-batsman choice. Moody backed Rishabh Pant to start of Sanju Samson for one very solid reason.
The former Aussie cricketer claimed that Rishabh Pant has the advantage over Sanju Samson, firstly because of his flamboyant left-hand batting. Tom Moody feels that a left-hander in the middle order will be a major point of difference for Team India as the team management would not want to get stuck with only right-handers in the entire batting order.
Moreover, while Rishabh Pant is capable of hitting at a good strike rate from the middle, Sanju Samson is known for his antics from the number 3 position. Samson cannot hit the ball out of the park from the word go but Pant surely has that skill and mindset.
With India's top-order from 1 to 4 sealed due to the presence of Rohit, Jaiswal, Kohli, and Surya, there's no way for Sanju Samson to think that he can replace them. Had he been a middle-order batsman, then he could have possibly cut ahead of Rishabh Pant.
"Absolutely, he does. I think his added advantage is that he is a left-hander, which I think is going to be really important to have that sort of point of difference in the middle order, particularly in the middle overs, which is probably the time that he'll come into the game." - Tom Moody said via Star Sports.
"You don't want to sort of find yourself in a position where you're stuck with two right-handers and your opposition line up bowlers accordingly. So I think he gives you that flexibility, and he's a specialist middle-order player. Sanju Samson is a specialist number three." - Moody added.
Moody praises Rishabh Pant for his tremendous comeback in IPL 2024
Tom Moody then went on to appreciate Rishabh Pant for the way he staged his competitive cricket comeback through the Indian Premier League 2024. Initially Moody had thought that Pant would play for the Delhi Capitals as an Impact player and just come out to bat.
However, the former SRH head coach was taken aback after seeing Pant play every single DC game as Captain and wicket-keeper batsman. The best part about Pant for Tom Moody was the former's ability to play without any major repercussions.
"We thought he may play as an impact sub and just come out as a batter. But to think that he could play every single game and every single game as captain, keep and bat without any sort of repercussions is quite extraordinary." - Moody concluded.
