Rishabh Pant
Cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra believes Rishabh Pant is standing last in the queue of Indian wicketkeepers right now. Following Pant's omission from the practice game against Australia A, Chopra, on his YouTube channel, said that the 23-year-old has gone with the Indian contingent merely as a 'tourist'.
Ever since breaking into the national side, Pant has always been assigned the daunting task of stepping into MS Dhoni’s shoes. Pant, however, has been receiving a lot of stick for his inconsistent batting show and poor glovework and the team management has rather shifted to KL Rahul in the limited-overs format.
Pant wasn't included in the ODI and T20I squads in India's on-going tour Down Under. Pant has so far represented India in 13 Tests, scoring 814 runs at an average of 38.76.
“It is a tough question. Rishabh Pant is standing last in the queue and at the bottom of the list of Indian wicket-keepers at the moment. The Indian team had one option, when we had the India A vs Australia A match, they could have played six batsmen instead of five.
You could have got Wriddhiman Saha to keep wickets but play Rishabh for sure,” said Chopra while responding to a fan's query over Pant's future with the national side.
“But now they have not played him there, and he was not there in the ODI and T20I squad. So, he has only gone as a tourist to Australia till now. He has not done any work till now,” he added.
Talking about Pant's exploits in the recent IPL edition, the youngster had a humdrum season with Delhi Capitals (DC) where he scored 343 runs with a single half-century. While being with the Indian side at present, Pant will miss the opportunity to hone his skills in domestic cricket. He apparently will have to wait for the next year's IPL if he doesn't get an opportunity in the four-Test series, slated to start from December 17 in Adelaide.
