The Indian head coach Rahul Dravid has come forward and clarified that the wicket-keeper batter, Rishabh Pant is an integral part of the team’s batting line-up heading into the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. The 24-year-old Pant was the captain of the Indian team in the five-match T20I series against South Africa that ended in a 2-2 draw after the decider was called off due to rain.

Rishabh Pant had only managed to score only 58 runs in his five outings, which led to questions being raised about his batting as well as his place in the team.

During the post-match press conference in Bengaluru, Rahul Dravid said, “In the process (of playing an attacking game), he might go wrong in a few games but he remains an integral part of our batting line-up with the power he has and the fact that he is a left-hander is important to us in the middle overs, he played some good knocks.”

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He further added, ‘Personally, he would have liked to score a few more runs but it is not concerning him. Certainly, he is a very big part of our plans going ahead in next few months.”

The Indian head coach also acknowledged that he will not judge Pant’s captaincy on the basis of one series. As a captain, Pant lost the first couple of games before winning the third and fourth to level the series against South Africa.

Elaborating the same, Rahul Dravid said, “To bring a team back from 0-2 down and to level it at 2-2 and give us a chance to win was good. Captaincy is not about wins and losses only. He (Pant) is a young captain, growing as a leader. It is too early to judge him and you don’t want to do that after one series.”

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He concluded, “It was nice to see he has got opportunities to lead, keep, and bat. He had a lot of load on him but gaining from that experience and credit to him for ensuring that we went from 0-2 down to 2-2.”