Before the beginning of the IPL 2018, 20-years old Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant is working on skills and fitness. While Pant was in the Indian squad during the recently concluded Nidahas Trophy tri-series on the Sri Lankan soil, Indian head coach Ravi Shastri told him to work on certain skills.
Pant played two T20Is during that Nidahas Trophy. However, he didn’t make any mark on those chances. In the first game against Sri Lanka, Pant made 23 runs off 23 balls while he was batting on the slog-overs.
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In the next game against Bangladesh, he just scored 7 runs.
After that tri-series, Pant is working on skills and fitness. He told reporters, “I am working on certain skills and also fitness with my coach Tarak Sinha (Sonnet coach). While returning from Sri Lanka, I had an interaction with Ravi Shastri. He told me to work on certain skills and I am trying to implement it in my game.”
When Pant was asked about that interaction between him and Ravi Shastri, he replied, “It’s between the coach and his player. I can’t disclose that. It was a good interaction. The atmosphere in the Indian dressing room is fantastic. I learnt a lot. Failures often teach you a lot and I believe I will comeback harder.”
Like the previous two seasons, Pant will play for Delhi Daredevils in the upcoming IPL season. He was retained by the franchise for INR 8 crore.
Talking about the Delhi Daredevils team, Pant spoke about the head coach Ricky Ponting and skipper Gautam Gambhir. He said, “Ricky sir gives you a lot of positive vibes. He is someone who always wants to win and same with our skipper Gautam Gambhir. I am expecting that things will change this season.”
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Apart from these coaches, Pant has also experienced with Rahul Dravid’s coaching (India U19, India A and Delhi Daredevils) for a long time.
Talking about his experiences from several coaches, Pant said, “The coaches can work on your mindset but it is the player, who has to give his hundred percent and execute it on the field.”
In this season, though Pant had not the very good performances in the Rani Trophy (315 runs in 14 innings), he provided good performances in the Vijay Hazare Trophy (266 runs) and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (411 runs, joint most runs scorer in that tournament)
Speaking on his inconsistence performances, Pant said, “I was in a good frame of mind but these things happen. You get a good ball, sometimes get out down the leg-side. It’s part and parcel of the game but you need to keep working hard.”
Talking about the present situation, while MS Dhoni is the no.1 limited-overs wicketkeeper, Dinesh Karthik is making his place at there as the no.2 wicketkeeper.
However, Pant is not feeling any under pressure. He told, “I don’t think there will be desperation to perform for this reason. And about pressure, it’s always there irrespective of whether it is Ranji Trophy, IPL or India.”
