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'This is the right time': Former England batsman backs Rishabh Pant to play all three formats for India
India vs England: With three ICC events lined up in the next three years, Ian Bell has figured that the time is right to make Rishabh Pant a regular feature in all three formats.
The growing upward curve in his batting has convinced Ian Bell that Rishabh Pant deserves to play all three formats for India. Pant, who has put together a string of impressive performances for India in since the Test series against Australia, scoring four fifties and one century in the last seven Tests, was included in India's T20I squad against England and even played the first game in Ahmedabad on Friday, and with three ICC events lined up in the next three years, Bell figures the time is right to make Pant a regular feature in all three formats.
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"I think now is the time, isn't it? With the ICC events that are coming up over the next few years this is the right time after what we saw Rishabh Pant through the Test matches, especially in the last innings," Bell said on the Runorder show on ESPNCricinfo.
Pant is coming off some solid form in the England Test series, having notched up scores of 91, 58 and a game-changing century in the final match in Ahmedabad, his third in Tests. With India struggling at 146/6, Pant walked out and hammered 101 off 118 balls with 13 fours and two sixes. In between, he played an unbelievable reverse sweep off James Anderson which got the entire cricket world talking about his bullish batting.
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On Friday, he went a step further, playing an atrocious reverse scoop off Jofra Archer that went for six. However, more that this brash arrogance, Bell feels the maturity shown by Pant has been immense and that makes him a worthy contender of playing limited-overs cricket for India on a much more regular basis.
"There was a maturity. We obviously know what he is capable of, the ability he has, the admirers he has. The fact that he played that Test match innings at the end, it shows that he is improving and thinking all the time," Bell added.
