The head of the Indian selection committee, MSK Prasad is a former wicketkeeper himself and his concerned about the young Rishabh Pant and it is about quality work behind the stumps at the highest level. Pant, who made his Test debut in England in the recently concluded series, slammed a memorable century in the final game at the Oval to become the first Indian keeper to achieve the feat in that country.

But while Pant’s fearless batting did impress Prasad, his not-so-organized work with the gloves remained a concern. He had a good debut game at Trent Bridge, hitting a six in the second ball he faced in Test cricket and also took five catches in the first innings. But the southpaw also conceded far too many byes in the six innings that he kept before coming up with a counter-attacking 114 at the Oval though India lost the game.

During an exclusive interview, Prasad said, “I am really happy the way Rishab batted in the last Test in England. In fact, we never had any doubts about his batting skills. My only concern is about his wicket-keeping.”

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Prasad had taken a total of 15 catches in his short Test career of six matches and despite the fact that Pant has played just 3 Tests and has already taken 15. The chief selector also looking for a training module to be created for a youngster so that he will be able to sharpen his skills under the watch of a specialist wicket-keeping coach.

Describing the same, Prasad said, “Now that he (Pant) has the experience of three Test matches under his belt, he would have understood the areas that he needs to work on. We are also trying to put him under wicket keeping specialist coach for some time. Along with Rishab we have identified few more upcoming wicket-keepres who need to be trained under a specialist coach. I expect Rishabh to serve Indian cricket for a long time.”

Pant’s opportunity to make his debut in Tests came after Dinesh Karthik’s lost his form. He has already played four T20Is for India since 2017 but yet to feature in ODIs. However, a lot of pundits were surprised when he was excluded from India’s squad for the ongoing Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).