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Rishabh Pant opens up on being part of Team India's leadership group, taking over vice-captaincy role
Rishabh Pant was named India's vice-captain for the T20I series against West Indies earlier this year.
Rishabh Pant's stellar rise in Indian cricket, across formats, has been big talking point. Battling criticisms and pressure of expectation of filling MS Dhoni's shoes at an early age in his career, Pant has come a long way to become one of the few all-format cricketers of India and be part of the leadership group. And on Friday, the 24-year-old opened up on becoming India's vice-captain for the T20I series against West Indies earlier this year.
With KL Rahul getting injured and subsequently ruled out of the three-match home series, BCCI named Pant as the vice-captain of Team India with Rohit Sharma as the captain.
Speaking to Times of India on whether responsibility brings consistency to his game, Pant said, “Sometimes it does. They made me the vice-captain for a couple of matches. But giving my 200 per cent as a player is the only thing under my control. As a part of the leadership group, I had to give my 200 per cent every day and help people around me. It could be backing a bowler, helping Rohit bhai set a fielder in a particular position. You don't need a designation to help your mates.”
Pant was also among the candidates to replace Virat Kohli as the Test captain of the Indian cricket team. And while Rohit was later named as the all-format captain, BCCI singled out three future candidates to replace the 34-year-old.
"I won't have that much of a role of telling them each and everything, obviously they are all mature cricketers but someone needs to be around them to help and guide them in difficult situations and (I am) more than happy to do that," Rohit had said in his first press conference after taking over the Test job.
"We were groomed by someone else, so it's a natural process. If you talk of Bumrah, KL, Pant, they have a big role to play in India's success at the same time they are looked upon as leaders as well."
