Rishabh Pant: The Guy Who Proved Expertise Is Not Necessary In Cricket
The Guy Who Proved Expertise Is Not Necessary In Cricket: Pant, a promising talent from Delhi, made waves for Team India when he performed for their Under-19 team at the 2016 Cricket World Cup. Pant lit up the tournament during the match against Nepal with his 24-ball 75, making it the fastest half-century of the tournament. India lost in the top two after that but they brought back several positives – one of them being Rishabh Pant.
The heroics of Pant in his international debut were noticed, and by the end of the season he was drafted into the Delhi Daredevils. He gained a permanent place in Delhi’s domestic circuit and by the end of that season was put as the captain of Daredevils for their one-day format. In between, he made his full India debut against England in a T20 international; he was even named captain.
For the second Ranji season, Rishabh outperformed his first. He achieved this with his match-winning innings in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy against Himachal Pradesh. When he smashed the second fastest T-20 century in history, bringing him back into the selectors reckoning, he was given a chance in Nidhas Trophy.
At the international level, Pant has been erratic ― he works too hard and fails to showcase his abilities. His strike rate of 100 is below average for a power hitter, but he still hits hard at the international level.
There is room for improvement for Pant, but he has all the raw materials necessary to succeed at the international level. This is why the Delhi Daredevils bought him for three years, where he will be playing alongside Gautam Gambhir and Ricky Ponting.
Not just any player would be able to play with such expertise, nor would he even need to since Rishabh Pant is a wiz at these skills. He has a wide-range of shots that are tremendous for hitting the ball and clearing the boundary. He can remove the ball from the ground in scoops, paddles, and flicks.
His career so far is an example of the timeline of talent meeting opportunity in the Indian Premier League. Rishabh was picked up by Delhi Daredevils at a whopping 1.9 Crores in the 2016 auction, and his first season didn’t go as planned, but he definitely vindicated the owners on their trust in 2017.
The second season of the IPL arrived, and Rishabh Pant had well and truly arrived. Going into the second season of the IPL, his confidence was sky-high, and there were talks of an imminent India cap for 2017’s Champions Trophy. But life had a twist when days before his team’s first match – against Royal Challengers Bangalore – his father passed away. He came back to cricket from the tragedy, nearly guided his team home with a single-handed effort, and later blasted a blinding 97 off just 66 balls against Gujarat Lions
In the third season as playing curator, Delhi’s only shining light was Rishabh, who consistently picked up wickets and helped bring down the morale of the bowlers. Throughout the season, Pant demolished the morale of opposing team’s bowlers thanks to innings such as his 125 against SRH in which he faced just one ball. As a player who has played international cricket with plenty of experience, Pant would be churning out for Delhi Capitals this season and keen to get himself on England’s World Cup roster.
Expect a dasher, an aggressor or the perfect gen-next batsman at the 2019 WC. Injured Shikhar Dhawan’s replacement, Rishabh Pant was ignored for the initial squad and got his chance due to Dhawan’s injury. He’s a left-handed player so he might throw a spanner in West Indies’ cricket plans.
Delhi Daredevils has been a consistent performer in the Indian Premier League, with many cricketing pundits thinking they should make them their captain. However, even though Pant might be hungry for success and his experience of playing Test cricket in England last year will help him adapt to new conditions, chances of him participating in the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup are small because he doesn’t have the experience needed for that yet.