Veteran commentator Aakash Chopra wants Rishabh Pant to play consistently with the bat for Team India. He said that the youngster is oscillating between sublime and poor right now. Pant has been going through a rough patch in limited-overs cricket so far. He played a poor shot to be dismissed in the first T20I against the West Indies when Team India were in a trouble.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra spoke about his thoughts. He said: “I will talk about Pant because the how and wow sequence keeps on continuing. The way he got out in the last match, I was a little disappointed because there was a chance and there is a need to utilize your chances a little more.”
Aakash Chopra elaborated: “He scored runs in one ODI, he did that in one ODI in South Africa as well. But not once in a series, you want more regularly. We all have that greed, we all want more runs, so he can play with a little more responsibility is what I feel.”
Rishabh Pant has a poor record for Team India in T20I cricket where he has scored 631 runs at a below-par average of 22.53 in the 42 T20Is so far as well. On the other hand, Aakash Chopra wants Ishan Kishan to be a little more adventurous.
He explained: “In my opinion, Ishan Kishan needs to play in a little more attacking fashion because he has got two opportunities, one in the ODI and the other here and he was seen going a little slow in both. You are making Ishan Kishan open because he is a pocket-sized dynamite, he is very explosive.”
“But we have not seen that explosive side till now, it happens a lot of times in the IPL, but at the international level against good teams, the question mark will still be looming large. He got time in the first match as well, so Ishan should play a little more destructively going forward,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
Aakash Chopra also spoke about his expectations from the Indian bowlers. He said: “Ravi Bishnoi – no one knew in the first match that he bowls googlies. In the second match, everyone will know now that he bowls googlies. What will be his response if the batters start playing him as an off-spinner? I believe he might not bowl that much leg-spin but he should learn how to bowl the leg-cutter.”
Aakash Chopra explained: “Harshal Patel bowled well, he has been brilliant. But it will be interesting because in the first match there was no dew and you bowled first, so the job got slightly easier. Will the slower ones work that much if the dew comes? The jury is out, we all want to see Harshal doing well but it will be worth seeing how he actually does when the conditions will be slightly more adverse.”
“Bhuvneshwar Kumar started well, let’s be fair. His arm comes extremely straight and because of that, he has the ability to bowl in tight lines. Bhuvi didn’t finish that well, as much as I personally would have liked. Like it or hate it, there will be pressure on Deepak Chahar. You are playing with Bhuvi. So the comparison can happen in a jiffy. The entire world feels both are similar bowlers, so their comparison is not hypothetical as both will be bowling on the same pitch to the same set of batters,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
