Rishabh Pant still has team management's backing: Vikram Rathour

The last year has been a bit confusing as far as India’s choices with wicket-keepers is concerned. Though in Tests, India has found stability and it seems they have two separate keepers for home and away conditions, it is the wicket-keeping in ODIs and T20Is, which has been a topic of debate for some time.

MS Dhoni decided to take a break after the semi-final of the World Cup last year. This meant India needed to find a replacement keeper as soon as possible. The team management looked at Rishabh Pant. However, after some below-par performances, he was dropped from the side in favour of KL Rahul.

We don’t know what is happening with MS Dhoni, says Vikram Rathour

In a recent interaction, India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour revealed that Rishabh Pant has the backing of the team management. However, he feels that it won’t be easy for the southpaw to replace Dhoni. “He (Rishabh Pant) hasn’t had a great last year and hasn’t done too well in international cricket. He still has the backing of the team management and we believe he is a special player. He can still bring a lot to the Indian cricket team once he starts scoring,” he said in an interview with Sportskeeda.

Vikram Rathour threw another hat in the whole MS Dhoni‘s comeback debate. He said that the former captain is still around. However, it is quite clear that if not today, but someday soon we might see Dhoni retiring. The batting coach also mentioned that replacing someone like Dhoni is not easy in any sense.

“MS Dhoni is still around, we don’t know what is happening with him, but replacing someone like him is not and was never going to be easy, with the kind of stature he had in international cricket. Pant has had a few failures so he has been under pressure to perform, but something like this makes you a stronger and better player,” Rathour added.

Pant has so far featured in 13 Tests, 16 ODIs and 28 T20Is. He hasn’t had the best knocks in the ODI format. It should be noted that even Kerala player Sanju Samson is also under contention.