IND vs NZ 2021: Rishabh Pant Could Have Taken A Bit More Time - Irfan Pathan Feels Pant Needs Improvement Against Spinners

Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan opined that Rishabh Pant’s slog-sweeping ability against the spinners have decreased since last year.

Irfan Pathan’s assessment came after Pant was caught in the deep while trying to launch Mitchell Santner out of the ground during the third T20I in Kolkata.

After a 69-run opening stand between Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan, Santner plucked out three Indian wickets to bring New Zealand back in the game, with the third being of Pant.

Irfan Pathan reckoned Pant, who was dismissed for 4 runs off 6 balls, should have spent a bit more time in the middle before attacking the in-form bowler.

“Look in terms of Rishabh’s batting, the kind of shot he played, he needs to keep working on his batting specially against spinners. Since maybe 2020, he has gone out to spinners playing the slog sweep about six or seven times which is quite high. He needs to just get better at it. He could have taken a bit more time as well,” Irfan Pathan told Star Sports.

Suryakumar Yadav is a high risk, high reward player: Irfan Pathan

Santner broke the opening stand with Kishan’s wicket before dismissing Suryakumar Yadav, who was caught while trying to play his trademark inside-out loft.

Irfan Pathan believes that Suryakumar is a “high risk, high reward”, and such dismissals shouldn’t be a cause for worry.

“And look when I talk about Suryakumar Yadav, I always believe he’s a fantastic player, but he’s a high risk, high reward kind of player,” the former all-rounder added.

Despite the stutter in the middle-order, Indian reached 184 courtesy of cameos from Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshal Patel, and Deepak Chahar. The Kiwis were bowled out for 111 as India clinched the game by 73 runs and the series by 3-0.

The T20I series will be followed by two Tests, which will be played in Kanpur (November 25-29) and Mumbai (December 3-7) before the team flies out for South Africa.

Also Read: IND vs NZ 2021: If You Take 27 Wickets In A Series, You Feel Like You Can Do Anything – Axar Patel On Carrying His Confidence From England Tests