'It was good night in terms of decision-making' - Graeme Smith lauds Rishabh Pant's T20I captaincy debut

The former South African skipper Graeme Smith has come to defend Rishabh Pant for his questionable decisions in the first T20I match yesterday. The Indian wicketkeeper-batter was handed the captaincy role after KL Rahul was ruled out of the series with an injury just a day before the match. India lost the match by seven wickets and missed the chance to create a world record for winning 13 consecutive T20I matches.

Pant excelled in the finisher role with 29 runs off 16 balls but made some surprising decisions while defending 211 runs at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Thursday night. Star leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal bowled only 2.1 overs and Hardik Pandya was restricted for an over only after getting smashed for 18 runs in the powerplay. The former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra also questioned Pant’s decision not to let Chahal complete his four-over quota.

“It is very surprising to me that a bowler like him only bowled two overs today. He should have bowled to the van der Dussen-Miller pair, especially at the stage when South Africa were back in the chase. Rishabh Pant surely made a mistake over there. He also was frantic in the powerplay, using five bowlers for six overs,” Nehra told Cricbuzz.

Graeme Smith thinks Rishabh Pant did well on his captaincy debut

The 24-year-old batter became the second youngest Indian captain to lead the T20I team after Suresh Raina. Rishabh has captained Delhi Capitals for a full season in IPL 2022 and also in a handful of matches of the 2021 season. He has plenty of years ahead of him to learn from his mistakes and needs support from the fans and former players. Smith believes that the player did well when choosing his bowlers to stay ahead of the game but his bowlers failed to deliver on his plans.

“But I think he was really good. He went to the right people at the right time. He tried to stay ahead of the game. When South Africa were under pressure, he went to Bhuvi, he went to Harshal. All in all, he made the right decisions but your bowlers have to deliver, you have to execute the plans.”

“But I think he can look back and say I made the right decisions at the right time. It was a good night in terms of decision-making. He will gain quite a bit of confidence from that outing,” Smith told Star Sports.