Former Indian fast bowler, Ashish Nehra wants India’s stand-in skipper, Rishabh Pant to focus on his batting rather than the position he is batting on, in the ongoing five-match T20I series against South Africa. Nehra reckons that Pant, who has more than 5 years of playing experience in international cricket needs to make the most of it during his lean patch. After a below-par IPL 2022 season as per his high standards, Pant failed to fire in the ongoing series against SA while batting at the No.4 position. 

During a recent conversation on Cricbuzz, Ashish Nehra said, “If you look at the IPL this year, Ricky Ponting said that Rishabh Pant was very unhappy with his performances in the season. Now, Rishabh might only be 24, but he has been playing in the IPL for five years now. So, he is an experienced player now, at least in this format. Such experiences give confidence to players.”

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He further explained, “From here, he wants to be better. He’s playing at the no. 4 position in international cricket, and obviously, there will always be pressure on him because there’s a lot of competition. Suryakumar Yadav is there, and Virat Kohli will also return in the future. That will happen. In this series, I would want Rishabh Pant to focus more on his batting than his batting position.”

Expressing his thoughts further, Ashish Nehra stated that one innings will change Pant’s mindset and deputy Hardik Pandya, alongside head coach Rahul Dravid, should ease some pressure off his shoulders.

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Elaborating the same, Ashish Nehra said, “It (the batting position) doesn’t make a big difference. How he captains, how much better can he perform.. he needs only one innings to get his mindset changed. It is important he doesn’t take too much pressure upon himself. Senior players like Hardik Pandya, and even Rahul Dravid should help him there.”