‘You can hit as many balls as you can’: Gautam Gambhir wants Rishabh Pant to become mentally stronger

Pant, 21, has struggled to keep his place in the Indian team, his role restricted to warming the benches and carrying drinks in ODIs and T20Is ever since KL Rahul started keeping wickets in January.

Former India opening batsman Gautam Gambhir believes that besides needing to improve on his skills, Rishabh Pant needs to get better at the mental aspect of the game in order to become a successful international cricket and hoped that the Covid-19 induced break will work in favour of the young wicketkeeper.

Rishabh Pant gestures. (Getty Images)

“I think skill-wise you need to keep improving but mentally you have got to get stronger as well when you have to play international cricket and if you want to become a very successful international cricketer as well,” Gambhir said regarding Pant on the Cricket Connected Show on Star Sports.

Pant, 21, has struggled to keep his place in the Indian team, his role restricted to warming the benches and carrying drinks in ODIs and T20Is ever since KL Rahul started keeping wickets in January. In Tests, he has fallen behind Wriddhiman Saha in the pecking order, and even though he played the two Tests in New Zealand in February, scores of 25, 19, 4 and 12 didn’t help him get a longer rope with the team.

Gambhir, who has played with Pant for Delhi Capitals, feels that more than anything, the youngster needs to be mentally strong and develop a thick skin as far as facing critics is concerned. Pant last played any form of cricket in February and with the IPL set to begin on September 19, Gambhir is eager to see what sort of an effect these past six months have had on the wicketkeeper batsman.

“You can hit as many balls as you can and as long as you want to, but you have to be mentally strong to face those criticisms,” Gambhir said. “Because criticism will always be there and how you want to approach the game going forward, 4-5 months of break obviously freshens you up mentally and physically as well but going forward let’s see how he copes with the criticism as well.”