Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh has defended Rishabh Pant for his poor dismissals in international cricket. The young wicketkeeper-batsman hasn’t been a consistent performer in limited-overs cricket. His aggressive approach has often led to his dismissal citing to poor shot selection.
Rishabh Pant was heavily criticized for his dismissal in the 2019 WC semi-final against New Zealand. With India’s scoreboard reading 24/4, Rishabh Pant joined Hardik Pandya on the crease. He added 47 runs for the fifth wicket with the all-rounder. However, He was dismissed at 32 as India lost by 18 runs.
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Speaking with Kevin Pietersen during an Instagram chat session, Yuvraj Singh mentioned that lack of experience was a major factor. He said, “Rishabh Pant was just playing his fifth match. I know everyone was p***** at that shot, but you need to understand he was just playing his fifth match. You need experience when you play a big tournament.”
Yuvraj also reasoned blamed India’s lack of planning as a reason for semi-final exit, HE e shares why taking Rishab Pant to the World Cup based on IPL performances isn’t correct.
He commented, “We did not plan well for the 2019 World Cup. When you play an IPL match for 20 overs, you have the authority of playing big shots anytime, but in 50-over matches, you cannot smash every ball. If the IPL was a fifty-over tournament, and if Pant had the experience of three IPLs in that format, then things would have been different. I’m just saying your mindset is different when you have the experience of playing 50-over matches.”
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Yuvraj and Kevin also spoke about their famous on-field rivalry. The rivalry was ignited when Yuvraj dismissed Pietersen a few times and the Englishman called him a ‘ pie-chucker’
Yuvraj, recalled, “It’s still my email address when you made that statement about my bowling. I didn’t feel bad, I actually laughed. I laughed so much because over the years I could not put it into words. But when you said it I felt yes that is what my bowling is.”
He continued, “That’s why I put pie-chucker in my email address. It’s my favorite email id. A lot of my friends address me as pie-chucker sometimes. When you know somebody hits your bowling, they don’t want to get out to your bowling. I know you were like, ‘I’m going to hit this guy out of the park but I can’t get out to him’. That was a lot of fun.”
