Rishabh Pant is a real good thinker about the game: Delhi Capitals' coach Ricky Ponting

The Delhi Capitals franchise has gone through a drastic change for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 season, changing their name from Delhi Daredevils and even the design of their whole uniform. The franchise also has Shreyas Iyer as the captain and the owners are not leaving any stone unturned for gaining success this time.

The Delhi Capitals have also roped in former India captain Sourav Ganguly as an advisor for the season and are hoping that they can change the fortunes of the batting lineup. When the topic of batting comes up, everyone is excited about one of the most explosive Delhi batsmen in Rishabh Pant from Uttarakhand.

Pant came into limelight for his hitting abilities in the previous seasons of IPL and has continued to do so. However, things have changed a lot since his IPL exploits as his international career has been a bit of mix and match. While in Tests, he has shown his abilities to the tee; in limited-overs games, his batting is yet to show the flourish he has. Sloppy keeping has not done him any good and playing unconventional, bordering irresponsible, shots with the bat have led to his downfall.

Ricky Ponting bats for Pant to come good

Pant had scored 684 runs from 14 games in IPL 2018 and was the second highest run-getter behind Kane Williamson of Sunrisers Hyderabad. Ricky Ponting hopes that Pant will continue his amazing form with the bat this year as well and help the team break the taboo of not making it into the final four for the past several seasons.

In an interview with India Today, Delhi Capitals’ coach Ricky Ponting backed Pant to come good and has called him an exceptional talent. “Rishabh Pant is not only an exceptional talent but also a real good thinker about the game. He has got a really mature head on his shoulders while on the field and probably a little immature off it with some of the things he does. But he is a fun-loving, young character. I think he is a very mature and a good a leader too. He understands the game and the situations really well,” Ponting was quoted as saying by India Today.

Ponting feels that DC batsmen should be invested in playing for the franchise

The Delhi Capitals’ coach Ricky Ponting felt that with the ICC World Cup 2019 around the corner, it is upon the batsmen to keep focus on playing in the IPL and not think ahead about the World Cup, especially the Indian talent in the DC, who might be bound for the World Cup or making a stake for a berth in Indian squad for the ICC event.

“I would love to have him the same season he had last year. I think he scored over 650 runs last year and was the leading run-scorer. I would like that to happen again. You just have to make sure that with the guys like Shreyas (Iyer), Prithvi (Shaw), Rishabh, and even Shikhar (Dhawan) are not thinking too far ahead about the World Cup, are fully invested in playing well for the Delhi Capitals in the IPL, giving us a chance to win the tournament,” Ponting mentioned.

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