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Former Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has praised batsman Rishabh Pant's defensive technique after the conclusion of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Pant endured an inconsistent series with the bat, scoring just 255 runs at an average of 28.33.
The left-hander scored just one half-century in nine innings despite getting off to a good start on several occasions. However, pants he showed his versatility in the final Test in Sydney with a 98-ball 40 and a 33-ball 61 in the first and second innings respectively on an extremely challenging batting wicket.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin praised Pant's defensive skills and felt his first innings 40 had unfairly gone under the radar amid his second innings onslaught.
“We have to realize that Rishabh Pant rarely comes out playing defence. He has one of the best defenses in world cricket. Defense has become a challenging aspect, he has the best defense with a soft hand. I have bowled him a lot in the nets, not out, no lead, no LBW, got the best defense I've tried to say One opinion about Rishabh was that he plays a lot of shots, he has to fight against Test cricket,” he say
Ashwin added:
“I always grew up hearing that you fought. In Sydney, he played two different knocks in one game. He was hit everywhere and scored a 40, it will be Rishabh Pant's least talked about innings. It is very unfair. In the second innings, he scored a fifty, which earned him a lot of praise for his second knock.”
Ashwin He has played with Pant in the Indian team for several years and recently pulled out midway through the Australian series.
Meanwhile, Pant boasts impressive Test numbers with nearly 3,000 runs at an average of over 42 in 43 outings.
“Rishabh Pant is yet to reach his full potential” – Ravichandran Ashwin
Ravichandran Ashwin believes Rishabh Pant is yet to realize his full potential with the bat. He asked the keeper-batsman to work on finding the ideal balance between defense and attack.
Despite his several heroic efforts in the past, Pant was heavily criticized for his early dismissals while playing rash shots during the Australian series.
“We have to tell him well what to do if he has to bat solidly or with intent. He hasn't scored many runs but he hasn't bowled like someone without runs. He has a lot of time. Rishabh Pant is yet to reach his full potential Ashwin said.
He concluded:
“He's got all the shots — reverse sweep, slog sweep, everything, but the problem is that all those shots are high-risk shots. With his defense, he'll probably score runs in every game if he faces 200 balls. The thing is to find If he combines everything, he will score 100 runs for each match.
Pant played an important role of India back-to-back Test series wins in Australia in 2018/19 and 2020/21.
However, its sample lower than the recent series meant that India suffered a 1-3 defeat to hand the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to Australia.
Edited by Arshit Garg
