Rishabh Pant’s Footwork Behind The Stumps Is Not Good: Syed Kirmani

Former India wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani feels Rishabh Pant will become an indispensable part of the team if his glove-work compliments his impressive batting.

With every passing game, Rishabh Pant is justifying the faith shown in him by including him in the Test team. With the competition for the wicketkeeping slot an intense one, Pant is making sure that he holds on to it by churning out some impressive performances.

His fearless batting and audacious shots have caught the eyeballs. But at the same, he also caught the eyes for his quite unimpressive work behind the stumps.

He finally made his debut in the third Test against England at Trent Bridge and marked his arrival in Test cricket in style. On the very second ball he faced, he dispatched Adil Rashid for a six to get off the mark. He went on to score 24 and take seven catches to receive widespread praise.

However, things only went downhill after that game. In the first innings of the fourth Test, he conceded as many as 23 byes. What further made things tough for him is his poor returns with the bat. Since his debut innings, his scores in this series read  – 1, 0, 18 and 5. But he made amends for those poor shows with a stunning show in the final innings of the Test series, scoring his first Test ton and thus became the first Indian wicketkeeper to do so in England. However, his struggles with the gloves continued. Overall,  Pant had conceded an unprecedented 76 byes in six innings in England.

On Friday, he slammed 92 off just 84 against West Indies to further showcase his batting potential. But the question mark over his work behind the stumps lingers on.

And Syed Kirmani believes if Pant can work on his wicketkeeping in addition to scoring runs, he will become ‘undroppable’.

“He reminds me of MS Dhoni when I first heard of him. He was a terrific hitter of the ball but not that technically adept behind the stumps. He worked on his shortcomings and look where that took him. Pant has age on his side but first and foremost, he should look to keep getting runs. That is the only way to make yourself undroppable,” Kirmani told Indian Express.

“Pant’s footwork behind the stumps is not good. He does not move with the ball, instead dives at the last moment. These will take time. My main point is, look at the young keepers in the country. How will they learn? You have specific coaches for each and every position except for such a specialist role,” he added.

Despite Pant scoring 92, Kirmani said that the youngster should also ensure that he does not miss out on big scores.

“Pant’s gung-ho approach to batting is quite refreshing to watch. He should not change the way he plays the game. That may lead to trouble. What he should, however, look at is conversion. The classic example today was Virat Kohli at the other end. When he got set, he ensured he reached a century. You should not miss out after doing all the hard work,”  he said.

Meanwhile, India are on the front-foot in the ongoing first Test against West Indies. After scoring 649 for 9, the hosts reduced the visitors to 94 for 6 at stumps on day two.