Rishabh Pant Needs To Be Given Enough Chances To Prove Himself: Sunil Gavaskar

Rishabh Pant was miles away from being impressive in the recently-concluded T20I series against Bangladesh. The visitors have successfully managed to induce more nervous minutes into Pant’s mind and as a result, it was so easy for them to get his wicket. Instead of improving step by step, Pant entered his own Bermuda triangle and is now struggling to find confidence.

Pant scored 27 in Delhi T20I opener just 6 in Nagpur decider. From wicketkeeping to batting, almost everyone launched a scathing attack on Rishabh Pant for his string of poor recitals so far. However, the former India captain Sunil Gavaskar came to Pant’s defence, adding that the young wicketkeeper-batsman should be given more chances to prove himself at the highest level.

Sunil Gavaskar bats for Rishabh Pant

“There are two-three thankless jobs in this game. One is the umpires’ job. If he gets nine decisions right but one decision wrong, the wrong one gets talked about. The same thing with the wicket-keepers, they can do 95 per cent of the things right but the one miss is talked about. Same thing is happening at the moment with Rishabh. His lapses are talked about more when otherwise he is keeping well,” Sunil Gavaskar was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Gavaskar’s remarks came a day after the interim captain Rohit Sharma asked Rishabh Pant’s critics to leave him alone for a while and let him approach the game with freedom. The young prospect is feeling the heat at the moment and so does Shikhar Dhawan who hardly turned up the heat in the ongoing series.

Sunil Gavaskar clarified that there is pressure on every player and it is important that the struggling ones should be given enough chances so that they make a subtle difference in the team. The former Indian captain feels that the selectors will have to play an important role in picking up the players for the upcoming West Indies series next month.

“There is pressure on everybody. Everybody needs to be given enough chances. That is for the selectors to decide, the adequate number of chances. There will be opportunities to try out players in the West Indies series (next month). There are enough opportunities for selectors to mix it up and see (what is working),” said Gavaskar.