Dean Jones Criticises Rishabh Pant, Calls Him One-Trick Pony

Criticism keep on coming thick and fast for young Rishabh Pant. Not very long ago, the India youngster was making it to the news for all the right reasons due to his exploits in Test cricket and Indian Premier League. Test centuries in England and Australia made it clear that the hard-hitting batsman could play in the longest format of the game.

Earlier this year, he played a big role in helping Delhi Capitals progress ahead of the group stage for the first time since 2012. But since then, things have only gone downhill for Rishabh Pant. He failed to deliver in the World Cup after India recalled him midway to replace an injured Shikhar Dhawan.

In the subsequent series against West Indies, he failed again and faced criticism from all around for getting out by playing poor shots. His fortunes did not change in the home T20I series against South Africa before India dropped him to include Wriddhiman Saha in the playing eleven for the Test series.

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With Rishabh Pant’s miseries not showing any signs of coming to an end, former Australia batsman Dean Jones has called him a ‘one-trick pony’. The Australian legend urged the Indian youngster to improve his stroke-play through off side in order to excel in international cricket.

“He’s still a young kid, still learning his craft, still doesn’t know what’s going on a little bit,” Jones was quoted as saying by Indian Express. “He needs to work more on his strokeplay through the offside. At the moment, he’s just a bit of a one-trick pony.

“We know he’s got an off-side game, he’s just got to work more. It wouldn’t take long to change but he needs to be very specific in his training programme right now,” he added.

Jones further said that Rishabh Pant should take a leaf out of Quinton de Kock’s book. Citing the example of the recent T20I series between India and South Africa, Jones said that de Kock had changed him game in order to counter the Indian bowlers.

“Quinton de Kock changed his game, that was very evident in the last T20 series against India,” said Jones.

“Everyone thought he struggled to hit the ball between point and mid-off and they bowled there. But through lots of net practice and good technique work, he hit a lot of boundaries. And all of a sudden they couldn’t line him up properly because he had other options to score,” he added.