Rishabh Pant expresses delight and determination upon selection for West Indies tour

As the Indian Cricket Team gears up for the winner takes it all final of the Champions Trophy against Pakistan, the national selectors, with an eye on the future, penned down a 15-man squad for the limited-overs tour of West Indies consisting of 5 ODIs and a T20I starting on 23rd June, just 5 days after the final is played at Oval.

One of the 5 players on standby for the current squad in case of unforeseen injuries and the promising 19-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant who is touted as a player with an extremely bright future will also take the flight to West Indies after the selectors decided to rest regular opener, Rohit Sharma.

Pant who had a fruitful yet under par IPL season this year was one of the main impact players for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy campaign which included a 326-ball inning of 308 runs as well as the fastest Ranji hundreds in the history of Indian domestic cricket.

Performance and nothing

The youngster expressed his delight at making it to the squad in an enthusiastic statement, “I am very happy that I am selected for West Indies tour. My target is to perform well nothing else. When I was in standby list for Champions Trophy I was not demoralised at all. Because I knew I will get a chance to play for India,” he said.

Boasting of a first-class average of 69, and a T20 career strike rate of 152, Pant’s potential has been evident to the Indian selectors, and he is hopeful of repaying their faith and pushing for a regular berth in the team. Having already made his T20I debut, Pant intends to look up to the seniors for inspiration and will try to make an instant impact on the tour.

“I will learn from my seniors and will focus on my game. Right now I am practising hard and giving my hundred percent to my game. Hope I will perform well in the tour,” added Pant.

Fatigue may have crept in due to the hectic schedule and the team’s extended run in the Champions Trophy, we may see fringe players like Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Kuldeep Yadav, Ajinkya Rahane and Mohammed Shami feature regularly in West Indies, and each would want to take a leaf out of other players’ books and impress the selectors with their performances.