Comparing Rishabh Pant with Adam Gilchrist is not fair, says Sachin Tendulkar

Former India batsman Sachin Tendulkar has said that comparing young Rishabh Pant with the legendary Adam Gilchrist is ‘not fair’. Gilchrist is one of the most if not the most decorated wicketkeeper-batsmen in the history of the sport. He is widely considered a trendsetter, who showed that the wicketkeepers should take their batting seriously.

Gilchrist, in fact, bowed out of the match as one of the finest limited-overs batsmen of all time. In ODIs, he scored 9,619 runs with the help of 16 tons including one in the final of the 2007 World Cup. He also revolutionises the Test match as an attacking No 7 batsman and scored 5,556 runs at 47.89, with the highest score of 204 not out.

Pant is now drawing comparisons with the legendary Aussie. In a very short span of time, the youngster has made heads turn with his attacking game. Just like Gilchrist, he also comes lower down the order in Tests and has already scored centuries overseas in England and Australia.

Sachin on comparisons

While the cricketing world is busy comparing Pant with Gilchrist, Sachin Tendulkar believes it is too early for that. Admitting that Pant has shown his capability, Tendulkar said that the time is still not right for the comparison. He also talked about Pant’s omission from India’s World Cup squad.

“Comparing him with Gilchrist at this stage of his career is not fair. I will wait for a while. Pant has no doubt proved his ability to play some seriously big shots and showed tremendous potential for the future. Whatever I have seen of him, I have liked. For him to be left out means somebody would have been worthwhile for the selectors to pick.

The selectors can only pick X number of players and that is the reason, possibly, it has happened. One can say that Rishabh has a bright future but whether he should have been there or not was the selectors’ call. My opinion will not take us anywhere,” Tendulkar told Bombay Mirror.

Rishabh Pant, meanwhile, had a fine outing in this year’s IPL. He scored 488 runs in 16 games for Delhi Capitals, with an average of 37.53 and played a crucial role in propelling Delhi to the playoffs.

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