IND vs SA: Ganguly Heaps Praises On Pant, Terms Him India’s Solution For All formats

Ganguly believes that the Delhi stumper is a ‘long-term bet’ and a ‘solution for India in all the formats’.

Amid all criticism over his recent performance, young wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant has found some backing from former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly. The 21-year-old has been under fire due to his shot selection in recent fixtures. However, Ganguly has opined that the young left-hander will get better with time. “There has been talks about Pant’s shot selection and rightly so but all must understand, he will learn and only get better,” Ganguly wrote in his column for The Times of India. In the last two outings against South Africa, Pant garnered 19 and 4. On both occasions, he was dismissed playing attacking shots. But Ganguly believes that the Delhi stumper is a ‘long-term bet’ and a ‘solution for India in all the formats’. “He has a young batting unit under him and all of them will need a lot of support from the captain, at the top of the list will be Rishabh Pant. His entry into international cricket has been brilliant and for me, he is India’s solution for all the formats. He is a match-winner and a long-term bet for India,” the former India captain said. The selectors have trusted in Pant as the first-choice wicketkeeper to replace MS Dhoni in future. But the young boy has given enough reasons to the critics to shower their words. But Ganguly isn’t much keen about India’s performance in the T20I series against South Africa which ended at 1-1. “India last played against Australia at home in T20 games and now against South Africa and the results have not been a happy one for them but that can happen in sport. One has to give credit to South Africa for their fightback to level the series in the third T20,” Ganguly said. “The T20 World Cup is in Australia next year and it is quite natural that a lot of so-called interested parties in cricket will jump up and down, passing their opinions and judgements about all that can happen. The key person amidst all this will be Virat Kohli and it will be important for him to stay calm for a long period of time,” Ganguly added. Kohli & his men will now enter into a three-match Test series against South Africa which starts on October 2 in Visakhapatnam.