He will need time to understand, Rohit Sharma defends Rishabh Pant after the latter's DRS gaffe

Rishabh Pant has been under tremendous pressure to take over from MS Dhoni behind the stumps in limited-overs cricket after being earmarked for greatness ever since his exploits in IPL. Pant is an explosive batsman capable of changing matches on his own but has not been able to translate that domestic form in international cricket.

However, the biggest issue has been his wicketkeeping skills which have been below par and have been dissected well by former stumpers as well. This has even led to him losing his place in the Test team with Wriddhiman Saha’s return, who is regarded as the best keeper in the world. One highlighting point for Pant has been his wrong calls in taking DRS reviews, which caused India severe harm in the first T20I against Bangladesh on Sunday.

Rishabh Pant is young and its too soon to judge him

Mushfiqur Rahim had just arrived in the middle and the 10th over Bangladesh’s innings proved to be a massive game turner. Bowled by Chahal, the over consisted of two loud LBW shouts, on which Pant seemed unsure and Rohit Sharma opted not to take the DRS review. Later, Chahal snuck one under Sarkar’s bat and Rishabh Pant caught the ball, going up in appeal and forced Rohit to take the review, confident of a nick.

However, the ultra edge didn’t show any spike and the review was wasted, with Pant and Rohit smiling sheepishly, while the replays on both LBW shouts showed that Mushfiqur was caught in front of wickets.

“Of course, Rishabh is young and he will need time to understand. It’s too soon to judge whether he can make those decisions. Plus, the bowlers as well. It’s a combination when the captain is not in the right position to make that decision,” Rohit was quoted as saying by Wisden while defending Pant.

“When you are not in the right position (as a fielder), you have to trust your bowler and the wicketkeeper. Based on that, you have to make that decision, whichever format you play,” he further added. The Bangladeshi wicketkeeper-batsman rode his luck and took his team home to register the first-ever win over India in the format.

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