'There's no stamp that says Pant will surely play T20 WC': Nehra suggests 3 alternatives to Rishabh for the World Cup
Rishabh Pant had a poor outing in the T20I series against South Africa, scoring only 57 runs in four innings.
The T20I series between India and South Africa ended in a 2-2 draw after the fifth and final match of the series was abandoned due to rain. The Rishabh Pant-led side had made an emphatic comeback in the series after being 0-2 down, beating South Africa by 48 runs in Vizag before registering a brilliant 82-run win in the fourth T20I in Rajkot. There were a number of positives for India in the series but Pant's form remains a concern for the team management.
In four innings in the series, Pant scored only 57 runs and was dismissed while chasing a delivery wide outside the off-stump on three occasions. After his failure in the previous T20I, questions were also raised over his place in the side and former Indian bowler Ashish Nehra believes that the Indian wicketkeeper-batter isn't undroppable.
“Right from day one we knew he(Pant) is going to be popular. He came the first day and then got dropped as he flopped initially. Then he came back and made a name for himself. I am very sure he will be disappointed with the kind of T20 numbers he had.
“The question this person asked was ‘can Team India play T20 cricket without Pant? Yes, Why Not. T20 World Cup is very far away. There is no stamp that says Pant will surely play the T20 World Cup. He can also get injured. But there are lot of games in between. We will have ten T20Is and then the Asia Cup," Nehra said on Cricbuzz.
Furthermore, Nehra also suggested three alternatives to Rishabh Pant in the Indian side.
“One good thing about Pant is that he plays all three formats. Others play only T20I, and if they don’t perform well in these limited chances, they will have some problems
“You have Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson. You also have Dinesh Karthik,” Nehra further said.