The young Indian batsman Rishabh Pant made his international debut last year in the last T20I of the three-match series against England at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. Thereafter, he hasn’t been able to cement his spot in the national squad. The wicketkeeper-batsman was included in the squad for the Nidahas Trophy 2018 in Sri Lanka but was dropped from the playing XI after a couple of dull performances.
Pant hasn’t played international cricket ever since, but on Tuesday got his maiden Test call-up for the first three Tests of the five-match series against England, starting August 1. Earlier he was drafted in India A squad for their triangular series against England Lions and Windies A. He notched a couple of half-centuries, including one in the Final at the Kennington Oval in London. The impressive display of batting gave him the spot in the four-day team as well. He played a gutsy knock of 67 runs in 71 balls and helped India A to a victory against the Windies.
Even in IPL 2018, despite the fact that his team Delhi Daredevils (DD) couldn’t manage to qualify for the playoffs, Rishabh became the second highest run-scorer with 684 runs from 14 matches at an average of 52.61 and a strike-rate of 173.60. He also smacked 37 sixes, the most by any batsman in the tournament.
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Apart from Pant, Dinesh Karthik is the other keeper in the Indian team for first three Tests and he is likely to be the first-choice keeper in the absence of Bengal cricketer Wriddhiman Saha.
Meanwhile, Rahul Sharma, who last played competitive cricket back in the 2014 IPL, took to Twitter and congratulated ‘his brother’. He wrote, “Congratulations my bro really happy for you @RishabPant777 test selection”.
Congratulations my bro really happy for you @RishabPant777 test selection 👏👏👏🇮🇳😊👍
— Rahul Sharma (@ImRahulSharma3) July 18, 2018
In the meantime, Danielle Wyatt, the English women’s cricketer, replied on Rahul’s post and wished the young sensation. She wrote, ” Congrats Pantyyyy! well deserved”.
Congrats Pantyyyy! 🙌🏽 well deserved
— Danielle Wyatt (@Danni_Wyatt) July 18, 2018
Pant spotted the post and Wyatt’s reply and he thanked both of them for their warm wishes. He replied, “Thanku”.
Thanku 🤗🤗
— Rishabh Pant (@RishabhPant17) July 18, 2018
