Take your eyes off Rishabh Pant, it will allow him to perform better: Rohit Sharma

With Rishabh Pant is facing more criticism and pressure over his performances — both with the bat and gloves — stand-in India captain Rohit Sharma has decided to back hin. On Saturday, he urged the critics to leave the 22-year-old to “leave him alone” saying the youngster is only trying to implement the team management’s strategy.

Pant earned a backlash in the ongoing T20I series against Bangladesh which is tied 1-1 at the moment, especially with his show behind the stumps. In the first match in Delhi that India lost, Pant’s call came under scrutiny while in the second in Rajkot, his failure to accomplish an easy stumping raised eyebrows.

Pant made a technical error when his gloves were found to be slightly ahead of the stumps when trying to dismiss Bangladesh batsman Liton Das, who the Delhi keeper ran out eventually.

‘Keep your eyes away from Pant for a while’ – Rohit Sharma

“You know there is a lot of talk happening about Rishabh Pant every day, every minute. I just feel that he needs to be allowed to do what he wants to do on the field. I would request everyone to keep their eyes away from Rishabh Pant for a while,” said Rohit Sharma as quoted by TOI.

“He is a fearless cricketer and we (team management) want him to have that freedom. And if you guys take your eyes off him for sometime, it will allow him to perform even better,” he said, adding that people start talking about Rishabh Pant whenever he makes a move on the field.

“It is not fair. I think we should allow him to play his cricket which actually he also wants to do,” Rohit, who slammed 85 in just 43 balls in the second T20I to bring India back into the series, said without hiding his irritation over the constant trial of Pant.

“Focus on him a lot more when he is doing good things also, not just bad things. He has been learning, there have been times he has kept well also. He is trying to do what the team management wants him to do.”

Rishabh averages in the low 20s in ODIs and T20Is and his glovework has also been suspect, which saw him getting replaced by Wriddhiman Saha in the recent Test series against South Africa.

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