India vs South Africa: Sourav Ganguly feels Rishabh Pant is India’s solution for all the formats

Rishabh Pant, the Indian wicketkeeper has been the hot talk of Indian cricket. He has been the main man behind the stumps for India after MS Dhoni took a break from the International cricket after World Cup 2019. Since then, the youngster has let everyone down with his batting performances. Pant was looked as a perfect replacement of MS Dhoni, but his successive failures and poor shot selection have made him face criticism of fans and former cricketers.

Pant has played 12 ODIs and has managed to score only 229 runs with the highest score of 48 that came against Bangladesh during the 2019 World Cup at Birmingham. In T20Is also his performance is below average where he has bunched out a total of 325 runs in 19 innings at a strike rate of 121.04. After facing criticism from all around the country, former Indian cricketer Sourav Ganguly has come out with an opinion that might give some relief to Rishabh Pant.

Ganguly opines Pant is a match-winner and a long-term bet for India

Former Indian captain Ganguly has picked Pant as the solution to India’s middle-order problems across formats in a long run saying it’s not right to judge him based on T20Is, “I know that the talks about the middle-order which stalled with the conclusion of the World Cup have re-opened again and I don’t think Virat Kohli should take much note of it, He has a young batting unit under him and all of them will need a lot of support from the captain, at the top of the list will be Rishabh Pant. His entry into international cricket has been brilliant and for me, he is India’s solution for all the formats.” Dada said as quoted by Hindustan Times.

Ganguly also added that the youngster needs proper guidance and someone like Virat Kohli needs to give a proper treatment to him so that Pant can make perform well in the upcoming tours. “There has been talking about Pant’s shot selection and rightly so but all must understand, he will learn and only get better. He is a match-winner and a long-term bet for India. Amidst all criticism, Virat’s guidance will see him through and that ultimately matters. Let’s not make T20 cricket a platform to judge shot selection,” the former cricketer said.

Rishabh Pant’s next assignment is the upcoming two-match Test series against South Africa. There are reports that after a long bad run with the bat for the Delhiite, Wriddhiman Saha can take over the responsibility of gloves in the 1st Test which is scheduled to be played in Vishakapatnam on 2nd October.