Ricky Ponting predicts more centuries for Rishabh Pant than MS Dhoni

Former Indian captain and wicketkeeper MS Dhoni shook the world by his surprising retirement call from Test cricket after Boxing Day Test match in Border-Gavaskar series in 2014. Since then India tried a number of wicket-keepers like Wriddhiman Saha, Dinesh Karthik, Parthiv Patel and Rishabh Pant. Dhoni, in a span of nine years of his Test career, scored 4876 runs in 90 Test matches at an average of 39.09. The right-hander made six centuries and 33 half centuries with the highest score of 224.

On the other hand, Rishabh Pant who made his debut against England in 2018 has shown a lot of potential so far. He has played 9 matches and has amassed 696 runs with an average of 49.71. In the short span in Test cricket, the left-hander has achieved several feats. He also missed two centuries against Windies as he had got out at 92 on two occasions. He also scored his career-best score of 159* against the Aussies in the ongoing fourth Test of the series

Ponting’s bold prediction

Talking to cricket.com.au, the former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has praised Rishabh Pant for his batting skills. Overwhelmed with his performance in the fourth Test the former Aussie skipper has backed the 23-year-old to score more number of centuries than MS Dhoni.

Ponting who also coaches Pant in Delhi Capital in IPL feels that the latter who has already scored two hundreds in his nine Test matches has the ability to score more tons than Dhoni as he is young and a lot of cricket is left for him to come. However, he suggested that the Delhi player needs to work on his wicket-keeping. With his aggressive way of playing cricket, the cricketing world would witness another Adam Gilchrist if the 23-year-old masters his wicket-keeping ability.

“And he is already onto his second hundred and a couple of 90’s to go with that. He is someone who can play a lot of cricket for India in all three formats. He has got a bit of work to do with his keeping, just yet; but he will keep working on that and he will become a better keeper, and he will become a better batsman as well.

“We talk about Dhoni all the time and what impact he had on Indian cricket. He played a lot of Tests but has (scored) only six hundred – this kid here (Pant) will make lot more Tests hundreds than that,” Australia’s two-time World Cup winning captain said.

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