Yuvraj Singh backs Rishabh Pant who faced Kevin Pietersen’s criticism for a pathetic shot

Rishabh Pant has a lot of promise and many expect him to scale greater heights. The 21-year-old couldn’t make the initial squad for the 2019 World Cup but came in place of Shikhar Dhawan, who got ruled out due to a thumb injury. Pant had to warm the benches for a few games and it was during the encounter against England at the Edgbaston in Birmingham that he got an opportunity.

He played three matches in the league stage, but his main test came in the semi-final versus New Zealand at the Old Trafford in Manchester. He came to bat after Virat Kohli, the Indian captain, and Rohit Sharma, who had scored five tons in the league stage, perished cheaply. Team India was chasing a tricky 240 and found themselves in more trouble as even KL Rahul couldn’t weather the storm and was dismissed for an identical score like Kohli and Sharma of 1.

Rishabh Pant perishes after promising

Pant looked good for a brief while as he got 32 runs off 56 balls with the help of four boundaries. He was involved in a 47-run stand with Hardik Pandya. In the 23rd over, the Young Turk eventually lost his patience. He played four dot balls off Mitchell Santner and then went for an outrageous slog-sweep. Unfortunately, he couldn’t time the ball and Colin de Grandhomme took his catch.

The Black Caps were jubilated and were cock-a-hoop. Indians were dejected, so was captain Kohli inside the dressing room. Pant was the fifth wicket to fall and at that point in time, the Men in Blue needed 169 runs off 27.1 overs with half the side back into the hut. In the meantime, former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen vented out his frustration, seeing Pant throwing his wicket away.

A dejected Pietersen took to Twitter and wrote, “How many times have we seen @RishabPant777 do that?????!!!!! The very reason he wasn’t picked initially! Pathetic!”

Here is Pietersen’s tweet

The comments didn’t go down well with Yuvraj Singh, the former Indian cricketer, He replied to Pietersen, backing Pant, he said, “He’s played 8 Odis ! It’s not his fault he will learn and get better it’s not pathetic at all ! However we all are entitled to share our opinions,”

Here is Yuvraj’s reply