The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) might be having a decent season but the poor form of Rishabh Pant is still a worry for the franchise. The most expensive player in the IPL and LSG skipper has not found any consistency in the tournament so far.
There has been a lot of criticism directed towards the Gabba Hero and 2024 T20 World Champion in the tournament as he has only scored 106 runs in the eight matches he has played and is averaging only 15.14. One of the experts and pundits who has criticised him is former India cricketer and IPL 2012 winner Manoj Tiwary, who said that the 27-year-old should try to play more conventional cricket, and also brought up the incident of former India legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar being upset with him during commentary.
“Rishabh Pant is that kind of player — he is brimming with talent. There is no need for him to go and play a reverse sweep right away, yet he does it. That’s why Sunil Gavaskar got upset during the Test match in the Border-Gavaskar series. Even he knows that Pant has so much ability that he can score runs with straight-bat cricket. So why doesn’t he do that? Why does he go for the unconventional?” Tiwary said while speaking to Cricbuzz.
If he has to learn from someone, it should be Virat Kohli: Manoj Tiwary
Tiwary also suggested that the swashbuckling wicketkeeper-batter needs to learn from the likes of Virat Kohli on how to improve his form and said he has to learn how to build his innings from the legendary batter and not think about the strike rate at all.
“If he has to learn from someone, it should be Virat Kohli. When Kohli came into international cricket, he didn’t play at a strike rate of 100 in the 50-over format. He took his time — scored 7 runs in 10 balls, sometimes just 5 in 10 balls — but he kept building his innings. That’s what Pant needs to do now — take a little time. It may not seem like it when you watch with your eyes that it’s a 20-over match, so you feel like you need to go bang-bang and finish it off quickly. But there are 120 balls in a T20 innings,” Tiwary concluded.
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