India To Stick With Rishabh Pant At No 4, Says Sanjay Bangar

Team India will persist with Rishabh Pant at number four in the playing eleven, assistant coach Sanjay Bangar confirmed on Monday ahead of the crucial game against Bangladesh. India will be looking to bounce back from their first defeat in the World Cup when they take on Bangladesh in a game which will be a do-or-die for the Tigers.

Even if India lose to Bangladesh, they will remain in hunt for a semifinal spot. However, if Bangladesh lose the game, they will be out of the competition at the group stage. And ahead of the game Sanjay Bangar has said India would stick with Pant for the game. The former India allrounder said that having Pant at number four will give the team the left-right advantage in the middle overs.

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Pant, who replaced Shikhar Dhawan in the team, made his World Cup debut during the 31-run defeat to England on Sunday. He scored 32 runs after a nervous start to his innings.

“I felt he had a decent innings,” Bangar told reporters at Edgbaston. “He got 32 and played a couple of god shots, got a partnership going (with Hardik Pandya), so we’re going to persist with him.”

Bangar also spoke on why Pant batted ahead of Hardik Pandya when the team needed some big hits.

“The team management was feeling the absence of a left-hander since Shikhar got injured,” said Bangar before adding: “It was a ploy to use right-left combination in the middle overs to upset the bowling plans. I feel because of that Adil Rashid could not bowl the number of overs he’d have usually bowled.”

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Bangar said that the team is trying to help Pant understand his role as a batsman in a lineup which does not have any specialist left-handed batsman at the moment.

“We’re trying to help him with the various mindsets and the roles that come with the middle order job, and the importance of the right-left combination… so straightaway he can put the pressure back on the spinners. It can help the team in a big way. On those lines, we’ve been communicating with him,” Bangar said.

With Bangar now confirming that the team would stick with Pant, it means Mayank Agarwal is likely to warm the bench. Agarwal replaced injured Vijay Shankar in the team on Monday. His addition made many speculate that he would open the innings and KL Rahul would drop down to number four. But it looks like the team would play the same eleven against Bangladesh.

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