Ricky Ponting likens Rishabh Pant to Adam Gilchrist, says he will get more Test hundreds than Dhoni

Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant came up fast through the ranks ever since he made an impressive Test debut in England last year. He though had his international debut in February 2017 in a T20I against England, but the southpaw made his biggest mark in the longer format.

After hitting a century in his debut series against England and a couple of 90s against the Windies at home, Pant came up with his biggest success so far and it was belting an unbeaten 159 in Sydney against Australia, the highest by an Indian and second-highest by a foreign keeper Down Under.

Pant found a good recognition in the ICC’s list as he was named as the Emerging Player of the Year and the gloveman’s success in his short career in red-ball cricket so far has made former Australia captain Ricky Ponting compare with him with none other but Adam Gilchrist, one of the greatest influencers cricket has seen. Gilchrist was one of the pillars of the invincible Australia side that Ponting had led once and could turn the game single-handedly with his bat on a given day.

Pant found a place in ICC Test team of the year

According to the former Australia skipper, Pant, one of the three Indian players to have been named in the ICC Test team of the year besides Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah, will also go past his iconic compatriot Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s tally of six Test tons.

“He is a real talent and incredibly good ball striker. He has got a really good game sense as well. He is someone who could play a lot of Test cricket for India across formats. He has got to do a bit of work on his keeping and he will also become a better batsman,” Ponting was quoted as saying by the ICC website.

“We talk about MS Dhoni all the time and his impact on Indian cricket. He played a lot of Tests for India but made only six Test hundreds. This kid will make a lot more Test hundreds than that. We talk about him in the commentary box and he is sort of like another Adam Gilchrist.”

Gilchrist, who has 17 Test hundreds to his credit, said he would happily pay to watch Pant play. Pant, however, is not in the Indian squad for the five ODIs against New Zealand starting Wednesday and will be with the squad for the three-T20I series in February.

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