The young Indian wicket-keeper, Rishabh Pant came into the playing XI as a replacement of MS Dhoni during the fourth ODI against Australia. He is auditioning for a 15-man squad for the World Cup. But things didn’t go well for the youngster, especially with the gloves. He missed a couple of crucial of stumping chances which eventually turned the game in Australia’s favor as the visitors chased down a record total.
Peter Handscomb was let off in the 39th over but Ashton Turner’s missed stumping hurt India the most. The latter ended up playing a match-winning knock for the Aussies and even the skipper Virat Kohli expressed his disappointment clearly over the missed chances in the post-match presentation. The crowd also started chanting ‘Dhoni…Dhoni’ when Pant made mistakes and the pressure was started building on him.
However, Pant’s coach Tarak Sinha isn’t pleased with all the criticism the youngster has been facing at the moment. He pointed out that even MS Dhoni had missed catches and stumpings early in his career and urged the fans to let the youngster settle.
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As per the quotes in Indian Express, Sinha said, “Such comparisons are cropping up because, like Dhoni, he (Pant) is also a wicketkeeper-batsman. But it’s unfair on him because it puts undue pressure for him to perform in a particular way, and be like Dhoni. He performs the best when his mind is free. Which keeper in the world hasn’t missed a catch or a stumping? Even Dhoni missed catches and stumpings at the start of his career. The good thing is that the selectors persisted with him and did not drop him after one season. He improved with time to become one of the greats of the game.”
Sinha also added that Dhoni didn’t have the baggage of replacing a big player while making his international debut. But Rishabh Pant now has to match the expectations and the benchmark set by the former Indian skipper.
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Describing the same, the coach said, “There’s a difference between the Pant of today and Dhoni 14-years-ago when he was making his way into the Indian team. Back then, he did not come with the kind of baggage like Pant has. There wasn’t any legendary wicketkeeper whom he was replacing. The guys back then were either Dinesh Karthik or Parthiv Patel, players younger to him. So, he (Dhoni) was free from the pressure and expectations that Pant is facing today.”
