Rishabh Pant finally came good and showed what he is capable of on Tuesday as India completed a 3-0 whitewash of West Indies at the Providence Stadium in Guyana.
Pant at first played out a challenging situation when West Indies took two early wickets and then went on to stitch a 106-run stand for the third wicket along with skipper Virat Kohli to steady the ship and turn the tide in India's favour.
While Kohli fell for 59, the 20-year-old unlike before, continued to hold fort and guide India past the finish line and remained not out at 65 off 42 balls in the end.
This was Pant's second T20I fifty and in the process, he also set a record by going past former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Pant's 65* now is the highest score by an Indian wicketkeeper-batsman in the shortest format of the game. Previously, the record belonged to Dhoni, who had scored 56 versus England in 2017 at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Pant's knock on Tuesday was filled with maturity and some calculated hitting and captain Kohli also urged the fans to be patient with the southpaw because he is the future of Indian cricket.
"We are looking at him (Pant) as the future. He has got a lot of skill and lot of talent. It is about giving him some space and not putting too much of pressure," the skipper made his intentions clear at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Kohli also said that he feels that Pant will soon start finishing games more consistently.
"He's come a long way since he's started. It's about winning and finishing games like these. In international cricket, you need to tackle pressure differently. If he plays like this regularly, we will see his potential shine for India," Kohli said.
Pant will next be seen in action on Thursday in the first ODI at Providence Stadium in Guyana again.