“His Downfall Is Too Many…”: Ex-Pakistan Captain On Rishabh Pant’s T20 Struggles

Rishabh Pant has been chosen as one of the two wicketkeepers in India’s 15-member squad for the 2022 T20 World Cup, along with Dinesh Karthik. However, the young left-hand batter’s T20 form has not been great of late. In the recently concluded Asia Cup, his scores read 14, 17 and 20*. He has a career strike-rate of 126.21 and average of 23.94 in 58 T20Is. His below-par recent T20 form has led many experts to back Dinesh Karthik in the XI. Former Pakistan cricket team captain Salman Butt had an interesting take on Pant’s regular failures in T20Is.

“His skill and his strength are too many shots. His downfall is too many shots. Too many shots all at once. When he is successful, he looks spectacular. His range is good and he is brave too. So many shots. And that’s the problem. At times, you need to calculate like take a single after hitting. But he has so much belief in his abilities that he goes for them, and when he fails to connect people ask, ‘what’s the problem?’. When he connects, you say ‘what a player’. He is someone who has a free-hand to express himself. That’s the way he is going to be,” Salman Butt said in a discussion on his YouTube channel.

India squad for ICC T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.

Standby players – Mohd. Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Chahar.