Gautam Gambhir Calls For Rishabh Pant To Be Mentally Tough To Handle Criticisms

Former Indian opening batsman Rishabh Pant has a piece of advice for struggling wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant. Gautam Gambhir feels that Rishabh Pant needs to build on the mental aspect of his game if he wants to become a successful player at the international level. Gambhir hopes that these few months of enforced break would have put him on the right track.

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Rishabh Pant enjoyed a bright start to his international career, making his debut in India’s tour of England in 2018 in the Test series. He went on to play the Test series in Australia, creating a record for the most number of catches and clattering a century as India won the rubber by 2-1. However, the 22-year old has not cashed on his limited-overs opportunities, often throwing away his wicket recklessly. Moreover, his keeping skills in white-ball cricket have also been shoddy.

Gautam Gambhir believes that a cricketer can practice as much as he wants to in the nets; however, one must be mentally strong to take criticisms. Gambhir claimed that criticisms are imminent and is optimistic that the break of 4-5 months would freshen him up mentally and physically. However, it remains to be seen how he deals with those moving forward. He would be next seen in the IPL for the Delhi Capitals.

“You can hit as many balls as you can and as long as you want to, but you have to be mentally strong to face those criticisms. Because criticism will always be there and how you want to approach the game going forward, 4-5 months of break obviously freshens you up mentally and physically as well but going forward lets see how he copes up with the criticism as well,” Gambhir stated in the Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected.

He believes that a cricketer has to improve as much mentally like they upgrade themselves skill-wise if they want to become successful at an international level.

“I think skill-wise you need to keep improving, but mentally you have got to get stronger as well when you have to play international cricket and if you want to become a very successful international cricketer as well,” the 38-year old said.

“It will do a world of good to Rishabh Pant and many other cricketers” : Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan, who joined Gautam Gambhir for this discussion, asserted that the break would do a world of good for plenty of players. With most athletes not playing since 4-5 months continuously, the hiatus would refresh them mentally and physically, mainly the veterans and the players whose careers were at stake.

“Lot of people will benefit from this break. I feel there will be lot of cricketers whose career was at stake but would get revived now because they would have recovered mentally as well as physically, especially players who are 35-36 years of age their careers might get extended for a couple of years,” Pathan said.

As for Rishabh Pant, the 35-year old added that Pant is a highly talented year and the break would have put him in the right track too. Moreover, the focus of the people has deflected from him, which is yet another positive.

“If you talk of Rishabh Pant, he is a young guy, very talented, there was a lot of focus on him. So the focus getting removed from him, it will do a world of good to Rishabh Pant and many other cricketers,” the Baroda-born added.

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