File image of Rishabh Pant
Veteran Indian cricketer Rohit Sharma has a piece of special advice for young Rishab Pant to improve his form amid rising criticism over his performance. He wants Pant to shut himself out from the good, the bad and the ugly being told about him in the outside world and focus completely on his performance.
For the Rohit, who capped off 2019 as the highest run-getter in ODI cricket, success in recent years has come through building a shield around him to "shut the noise down".
"When you play the sport, there is a lot of distraction and noise around you. You need to create an environment around yourself so that none of this bothers you. No idea, vision or sermons will come inside that shield unless you allow it. Let people say good things, bad things, one shouldn't be bothered about it," said Rohit on Monday in an interview with PTI.
Empathising with Pant who has been constantly attacked by critics for his inconsistency in the game, both with the bat and with his wicketkeeping, Rohit wants the youngster to implement the same rule in his life.
"In fact, I was telling Pant the same thing. Poor guy is only 21 (22) and people are telling him to score hundreds in every game, do this and do that. I mean cut some slack man. I told Rishabh 'Create a wall and ensure that nobody comes inside. It's your safe-house. People want to talk about you, let them do it outside that wall and you do what you intend to do inside your zone'," said Rohit.
"Who knows it might help Rishabh. It worked for me at least."
Pant has managed only one fifty-plus score in the last seven limited-overs games he has played for India. In T20Is, his career average stands just 20.45 from 24 innings and in ODIs, it is 26.61.
Owing to his poor form in T20Is, the selector called up Sanju Samson as his replacement but the team management has continuously backed the youngster.
Pant still has a good 14 international matches along with the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and IPL 2020 to prepare himself for World T20 in Australia in October.
