Rishabh Pant Fails Again, Falls For Seven In Warm-Up Game

Nothing is going right for Rishabh Pant at the moment. The highly-rated wicketkeeper-batsman is fast running out of time to prove that he is ready to deliver at the highest stage of the game. And at a time when he is facing criticism from all around, he has made things more tough for him by failing again in the ongoing warm-up game against New Zealand XI in Hamilton.

Rishabh Pant has not played for India since the ODI series against India last month. He suffered a concussion in the first ODI while batting and it forced the team-management to hand the wicketkeeping gloves to KL Rahul. The Karnataka star impressed behind the stumps straightaway and since then he has been preferred as the wicketkeeper-batsman in T20Is and ODIs.

With Rahul showing no signs of stopping with the bat, it is highly unlikely that Rishabh Pant would get a chance in the playing eleven soon. The youngster has lost his place in the Test playing XI too. At the start of the home season last year, India recalled Wriddhiman Saha because of his wicketkeeping skills.

But Rishabh Pant had the chance to stake a claim in the playing eleven on Friday when he came out to bat against New Zealand XI. Having scored Test centuries in England and Australia, a good performance in the warm-up game would have brightened up his chances.  However, the left-handed batsman failed once again and was out for just 7.

Pujara, Vihari impress:

India were all out for 263 in the ongoing warm-up game. Barring Cheteshwar Pujara and Hanuma Vihari, no other batsmen made any significant contribution. Vihari retired after scoring 101 while Pujara missed his ton by just seven runs. Ajinkya Rahane (18) was the only other batsman who touched the double-digit mark.