Live Score
Cricket Teams
Cricket Players
India vs Australia: ‘Time to get Rishabh Pant’, Deep Dasgupta suggests change of wicketkeeper for Melbourne Test
Former Indian cricketer Deep Dasgupta has suggested that India need to replace Saha, who has struggled to score overseas, with Rishabh Pant.
It has been more than three years since Wriddhiman Saha scored a fifty or a ton in Test cricket. He has been impeccable with his skills behind the wickets but yet to leave an impact with the bat on bigger stages.
Be it a home series or an overseas tour, Saha’s batting has been one of the concerns for team India in recent years. His last fifty-plus score came against Sri Lanka in Colombo in August 2017. In the same year, he had smashed 117 off 329 balls against Australia in Ranchi Test, which ended in a draw.
Three years down the line, his poor run continued in the pink-ball Test against Australia where India went through the worst batting collapse, registering their lowest team total ever in Tests. Saha, who got a half-century in the first practice match, managed to score 9 and 4 in both innings respectively.
Meanwhile, former Indian cricketer Deep Dasgupta has suggested that India need to replace Saha, who has struggled to score overseas, with Rishabh Pant.
“Couple of things, firstly he [Wriddhiman Saha] did not look comfortable, same with Prithvi [Shaw]. Two innings, generally we say it’s just tw innings we can’t judge, you shouldn’t judge, but again the look of it - both Prithvi and Wriddhiman just tells you that maybe it’s time you look at Rishabh [Pant] - that’s one,” India Today quoted Deep Dasgupta as saying.
“And secondly, he [Saha] was your first choice, you’ve given him an opportunity and he did not work. Again, it’s not just the quantum, it’s the way he was batting. So I think it’s time to get Rishabh,” he added.
Australia have taken a 1-0 lead in the four-match series. Now both teams will lock horns in the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground which commences from December 26.
After the horrendous result of the first Test, India, in all likelihood, will be making changes to the playing XI and getting in Rishabh Pant would be one of them. Pant was benched in the first tour game. He came to play the second and scored a century off just 73 balls.
