Rishabh Pant Deserved To Be Picked Up In The Team For The Australia T20Is, Says Former Player

With Rishabh Pant being overlooked for yet another series, former India Test opener Aakash Chopra feels the youngster should have been in the squad for the upcoming three-match T20I series against Australia.

Well, one cannot disagree with Chopra’s comments as Pant is more or less likely to replace MS Dhoni behind the stumps in the future. Dhoni is going strong at the moment and there is absolutely no scope of dropping him from the team to make way for another wicketkeeper but one cannot deny the fact that the World Cup-winning skipper is towards the fag end of his career and is not going to remain around for a long time.

Moreover, with Dhoni’s chances of playing after the 2019 World Cup looking bleak and the next World Cup, that is World T20, being in 2020, Chopra feels Pant should have been given an opportunity which would have also allowed the team management to see the youngster’s worth.

“One noticeable absentee is Rishabh Pant (from the T20 squad), somebody who could have been given an opportunity. He did play that lone T20 in the West Indies, got to mid 30s, struggled initially but then eventually found his feet and when you talk about youngsters getting an opportunity, I thought Pant deserved a go because Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be there in the 2019 World Cup is what we’ve been told but the next World T20 is in 2020,” Chopra told ESPNcricinfo.

“That’s a long time away and this was the opportunity, this was the time when the Indian team could’ve tested Rishabh Pant and see what he was worth,” he added.

Earmarked by many for huge success in future, Pant first made his presence felt with his stunning performance in the last edition of the Ranji Trophy. The 19-year old grabbed the attention when he scored a belligerent 308 off 326 balls against Maharashtra before following it up with a 48-ball hundred against Jharkhand which is one of the fastest first-class centuries by an Indian. He finished Ranji Trophy as its fourth-highest run-getter with 972 runs in only 8 outings including four centuries and a couple of the fifties.

His performance saw him earning his maiden Team India call for the T20I series against England. He did well in the Indian Premier League but was not included in the squad for the Champions Trophy. However, he was recalled in the team for the T20I series against West Indies and could play only one match before being dropped. Since then, he has failed to impress for India A or in the Duleep Trophy and perhaps that is the reason that the selectors have not considered him for the upcoming series.