Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting
Young Indian cricketer Rishabh Pant on Friday revealed the advice that Delhi Capitals coach and Australian legend Ricky Ponting, and current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly gave him. Pant revealed it during an Instagram Live chat session with his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Capitals' official handle.
The wicketkeeper-batsman said that Ponting always tells him to play his natural game. "He gives me a free hand. He says do whatever you want to do."
And talking about Ganguly, who is also the DC mentor, he said, "You need to give yourself some time and then you can do whatever you want to do. He always wanted me to do well. He told me a few things and I tried them also. It helped."
Speaking about his days of struggle, Roorkee-born Pant said he used to take a bus at 2 o'clock in the night to travel all the way to Delhi for practice.
"They (Uttarakhand) did not have a cricket team at that point. So I used to take bus at 2 a.m. in the night. That time it used to take 6 hours by road. It was difficult during winters as it was too cold. There was fog also. It's been a good journey (as I look back). At the end of the day, you have to work hard to achieve your goal," said Pant who has played 13 Tests, 16 ODIs and 28 T20Is so far.
Pant added that seniors in the team like M.S. Dhoni, skipper Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan help him a lot along with former star Yuvraj Singh and veteran Suresh Raina.
On his idol and legendary Australia wicket-keeper batsman Adam Gilchrist, Pant said: "Over a period of time I have realised that you have to learn from your idol but you don't have to copy him. You learn things which you like and can implement in life and cricket. You need to have your own identity."
