T20 World Cup 2022: India on Sunday defeated Zimbabwe in a Super 12 match of the ongoing World Cup to finish as table toppers in Group 2. The Men in Blue, who already sealed a semi-spot after South Africa's shocking defeat opted to rope in Rishabh Pant in place of Dinesh Karthik. While Pant could not create a big impact in his first game of the tournament, coach Rahul Dravid has backed the left-handed batter and also hinted that he can be picked in the matches ahead.
"I don't think we judge people on one game, and sometimes whether we play them or not is not based on one game," Dravid said after India defeated Zimbabwe on Sunday. Dravid also stated that decisions to play a player are sometimes made on matchups. "Sometimes it's just matchups. We need to look at what are skills we might need against the kind of bowlers we might come up against. So a lot of things go into these kinds of decisions," Dravid added.
Ahead of the Zimbabwe match, Sharma stated that the decision to play Pant was taken as he had not played in a single match on the Australian tour. Notably, India's semi-final opponents England also have a leg spinner Adil Rashid up in their ranks and if teams try for matchups, then a left-hander is a good pick against leg spinners. Also, if Pant is picked, it is unlikely that both Karthik and Pant will be played together. Considering Dravid's comment that picking a player is sometimes not dependent on one game, Pant might find his place after failing against Zimbabwe. Dravid further stated that the team has confidence in Pant and all the other players as well.
"Yeah, in a sense it's not that we ever lost confidence in Rishabh. We've got confidence in all of our 15 players who play here. It's only 11 guys who can play, and it depends on the combinations that you have. The very fact that they are here and they're part of the World Cup means that we have a lot of confidence in them. It means that anytime they can be called on to play in the XI," Dravid said.
Rishabh Pant departed for 3 after featuring in his first match of the T20 World Cup. Dravid also backed the left-handed batter on his intent. "Obviously, it didn't kind of work out today, but absolutely no -- I'm not bothered about that at all because I think he took the right option. His role was to take on the left-arm spinner which was there, and sometimes it comes off and sometimes it doesn't," Dravid said.
