Former India wicketkeeper-batsman Farokh Engineer, while recalling India's tour of Australia in 2020, has lavished huge praise on Rishabh Pant who is currently touring England for the 5-match Test series.
Pant has been in a great nick lately and has earned the reputation of the first-choice wicketkeeper in the longest format of the game. However, the road to success wasn’t easy for the youngster. He had to work hard to gain his spot and once he did that, he never looked back. He played a massive role in India’s series win in Australia earlier this year. A couple of months later, he scored his first Test ton against England at home.
Three years after his international debut, he is back in England and showing great improvement in his keeping skills. Speaking of the same with Sports Tak, Engineer highlighted that Pant did make mistakes in his early days but now, he is quite matured than before.
{{/usCountry}}Three years after his international debut, he is back in England and showing great improvement in his keeping skills. Speaking of the same with Sports Tak, Engineer highlighted that Pant did make mistakes in his early days but now, he is quite matured than before.
{{/usCountry}}“I’ve always like Rishabh Pant as an individual. I’m very fond of him. Pant and Dhoni reminded me of my younger days. I was the same attacking batsman, but I’d like to think I was a better wicketkeeper. I was a wicketkeeper-batsman – predominantly a wicketkeeper and then a batter. Whereas Pant and Dhoni are batsman-wicket keepers. That means their batting comes first and then wicketkeeping,” Engineer said.
“For one-day cricket, you can have a batsman-wicketkeeper. But for Test cricket, you need a proper wicketkeeper. Rishabh Pant did have his weakness; he was snatching the ball, getting up too soon. But he’s definitely improved as a wicketkeeper,” he added.
Speaking about his batting skills, Engineer said pant is a talented cricketer who would turn into a great servant for India.
“As a batsman, he is a unique phenomenon. He’s got that confidence that very few people have. You saw him in Australia, when he reverse-sweeped to get his hundred, only a complete idiot or a man with supreme confidence would do that. And I wouldn’t call him an idiot at all. I would call supreme confidence.
“He is a very talented cricketer. I wish him nothing but the very best of everything. He is maturing with every game and he will be a great servant for India,” he said.