The young lad from Delhi Rishabh Pant is gradually rising as the next big player of Indian cricket. He has had a phenomenal start to his IPL 2017 campaign as in the first match against RCB he smashed a breathtaking fifty.
Recently, Pant raised a bunch of hopes that he would go on to emulate the Indian skipper Virat Kohli. On Saturday night, he played an innings of 57 for his team Delhi Daredevils just two days after cremating his father, though in a losing cause. The decision of rushing to Bengaluru for the first match of the season became tougher because of his ailing mother. But, being a daredevil he took the courageous decision and made his closed ones proud.
The wicket-keeper batsman tasted some fame because of his outstanding performances at the U19 level. Even in his maiden Ranji Trophy season, he set the records on fire with constant vicious batting. With that sort of performances, the young Delhi batsman was bound to outclass at the highest level someday.
At such a young age, Pant is busy smashing one of the best bowlers of international circuit. He just needs to be consistent, especially in domestic circuits in order reach the highest level in near future.
Rishabh Pant was born in Haridwar, Uttarakhand and during his younger days, he swapped cities in order to find a good cricket coach. He started off with Roorkee and had a brief stint in Rajasthan before settling in Delhi.
Since the age 12, Pant has been trained by Coach Tarak Sinha, who also coached Indian opener, Shikhar Dhawan. Sinha gave an advice to Pant that he should move to Rajasthan and listen to his coach he ends up playing the U14 and U16 level for Rajasthan.
Rishabh finally moved back to Delhi after being called as an outsider in Rajasthan. Soon after becoming an adult, he got the chance to make his First-Class debut for Delhi. He scored a brilliant half-century on his First Class debut in the second innings against Bengal in 2015.
The south was later on selected for the India U19 squad for the ICC U19 World Cup 2016 held in Bangladesh. He was the standout performer for India in the tournament as the India U19 squad was the runner-up team of the tournament. He smashed 3 consecutive half-centuries in that World Cup.
Pant and his records
In the same tournament, Pant broke the record for smashing the fastest fifty at U19 international level. He completed a blistering fifty in just 18 balls against Nepal. In that match, he scored 78 runs off 24 deliveries. In the next match against Namibia U19, he scored 111 off 96 balls and helped his team to reach the finals. On the same day, he was bought by Delhi Daredevils for a massive price of Rs. 1.9 crore in the IPL auction 2016.
Pant idolizes former Australian gloveman Adam Gilchrist and he proves that with his style of play. In the 2016 Ranji Trophy match against Maharashtra, he played outstanding innings of 308 runs off just 326 deliveries. He also became the third-youngest batsman and second wicket-keeper to smash a triple hundred in a Ranji match. It is also the second highest scored by a Delhi batsman in First Class cricket after Raman Lamba’s 312 in 1994.
In the same Ranji season, Rishabh smashed the fastest century in the history of Ranji Trophy. His century came off just 48 deliveries against Jharkhand and he bashed 21 sixes in that innings. This is also the second highest number of sixes hit by a batsman in First Class cricket in India.
