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'I turned to Rahul Dravid and asked 'who is this kid?': Sam Billings recalls first sighting of Rishabh Pant
It was back in 2016 that Billings was drafted to the Capitals (formerly Delhi Daredevils), and the 29-year-old revealed spotting Pant for the first time and recalls being completely blown away by him.
England's Sam Billings will return to playing for Delhi Capitals after the batsman was acquired by the franchise for ₹2 crore during the IPL 2021 auction, where he will reunite with star India batsman Rishabh Pant. It was back in 2016 that Billings was drafted to the Capitals (formerly Delhi Daredevils), and the 29-year-old revealed spotting Pant for the first time and recalls being completely blown away by him.
"Pant I played with in the two years when I was at Delhi and I turned to Rahul Dravid and asked: 'who is this kid?'," Billings told ESPNCricinfo. "He was smacking Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Morris, Rabada everywhere and in this open net. And I was thinking 'this is unbelievable', and that year he lit up and yeah, so it's been great to see him evolve as a cricketer and be on the same team as him again will be great."
Also read: Batting coach Vikram Rathour talks on India's T20 World Cup squad
In his maiden IPL season in 2016, Pant got his first opportunity for the Capitals, but couldn't make the most of it, as he tallied 198 runs from 10 matches with one half-century. The year later, Pant made his India debut – in January of 2017 in a T20I against England, but he was still far from being an automatic pick.
That year, Pant hit 366 runs from 14 matches. In 2018, Pant burned up the charts and blasted 684 runs at an average of 52.61 with five fifties and a century – including a highest score of 128 vs Sunrisers Hyderabad. The spike in form in the IPL led to his Test debut for India later in the year during the tour of England. Even though India lost the series, Pant emerged as a huge positive as he scored his maiden Test century at The Oval.
In a matter of months, Pant established himself as India's No. 1 wicketkeeper in Tests. As India wrapped up a historic Test series win in Australia a few months later, Pant scored a second impressive century, this time at the historic Sydney Cricket Ground. On the back of yet another successful IPL in 2019, scoring 488 runs, Pant was surprisingly dropped from India's initial squad for the 2019 World Cup, but got his chance when Shikhar Dhawan fractured his thumb and was ruled out.
