If You Know Rishabh Pant Is There Till The End, You Are Going To Win More Matches: Ricky Ponting

Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting feels ecstatic to have keeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, who he describes as a genuine match-winner. Rishabh Pant has been in the form of his life in the last few months across formats and is on the road towards sparkling in IPL too. Ricky Ponting remarked that like Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson, the keeper-batsman ensures that his team wins the match.

Delhi Capitals appointed Rishabh Pant as captain, replacing Shreyas Iyer, whose shoulder injury in the first ODI against England forced him to miss IPL 2021. The keeper-batsman made an impressive start as the skipper, leading the Capitals to a seven-wicket victory against the Chennai Super Kings in Mumbai last week. The southpaw hit the winning runs and hopes to take his side towards their maiden title this year.

Ricky Ponting recalled IPL 2020 when Rishabh Pant entered as an overweight individual due to the lockdown in India and injured his hamstring in the third or fourth game. The former Australian captain underlined that the team could not get the best out of him even after bringing him back. But Ponting has been impressed by Pant’s turnaround and feels that his current form is the biggest plus for the Capitals. The Tasmanian thinks that Delhi must slot the captain in the correct batting position.

“He was disappointing for us in the last season, he had entered the edition with a lot of overweight on back of lockdown in India. He turned up a bit underdone, he did his hamstring in the third or fourth game. When we brought him back, he could not get to the level that we expected but if you look at him now, you can see he is fit and is winning matches for India and that orders well for the Delhi Capitals. The biggest trick that we need to get right is Pant’s batting position in this IPL, you want to involve him as early as well. Pant is like Virat Kohli or Kane, if you know he is there at the end, you are going to win more matches,” Ponting told Cricket.com.au.

Brilliant bloke to have in your team, loves to be in the contest: Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting stated he was in awe of Rishabh Pant’s keeping skills in the turning tracks in India and exceeded his expectations. The two-time World Cup-winner expects the Delhi-born cricketer to dominate Indian cricket if he continues to improve his keeping skills as he already bats sensationally.

“There will always be question marks on his keeping, but he works hard on it and his batting is just brilliant. But the way I saw him keeping on those turning wickets against England, he kept better than I thought he could. If his keeping continues to improve, he could be India’s wicketkeeper-batsman for the next 10-12 years. Brilliant bloke to have in your team, loves to be in the contest,” he added.

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