IND vs SA: He Might See Him Fighting For A Spot- Morne Morkel On Rishabh Pant's Recent Struggles With The Bat

Rishabh Pant has gone relatively cold since his heroics against Australia earlier this year. He played two match-winning knocks in Sydney and Melbourne. Since then, apart from his century against England at home, Pant has scored only one half-century in 13 innings, out of which five have produced single-digit scores. Meanwhile, former South African pacer Morne Morkel has had a word of warning for Rishabh Pant given his failure with the bat in Johannesburg.

The Indian wicketkeeper-batsman came under the scanner for throwing his wicket away in the second innings of the Johannesburg Test match. He lost his concentration as a result of his altercation with Rassie Van der Dussen. The way he got out left his teammates and coach Rahul Dravid unamused. He also received a lot of criticism from former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar.

Let The Bat Do The Talking: Morne Morkel On Rishabh Pant

“For me, Pant is a quality player but I would rather let the bat do the talking at the moment than him behind the stumps. I reckon before you know, a couple of low scores and he’s going to find himself in trouble there… fighting for a spot in the team. I’m quite surprised with that,” Morkel said on The Byju’s Cricket Live Show in Star Sports.

Morne Morkel further gave his opinion on the face-off between Marco Jansen and Jasprit Bumrah. Bumrah was bowled a barrage of bouncers by Jansen and was eventually took the catch to dismiss him in the second innings. Incidentally, both were teammates at Mumbai Indians in IPL 2021.

“Bumrah’s response was an interesting one for me. For me, I feel that it’s the heat of the moment for fast bowlers, they bowl short to each other. It was sort of Bumrah’s response in England to Jimmy Anderson… it was sort of a remake. Also, Bumrah responding and hitting Kagiso Rabada for a six. Emotions are going to flare up every now and then. It takes an instance where they are at each other’s face,” Morkel added.

The test match saw many controversial moments with eventually the hosts winning it by seven wickets to draw level in the three-match series. The third and final Test match starts in Cape Town from January 11.

Also Read: IND vs SA: Dean Elgar Reveals How He Fired Up Kagiso Rabada To Perform Against India On Day 3 Of Second Test