As Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting-led India prepares for the upcoming T20 World Cup, Rishabh Pant will play “every day of the week” despite some Familiar names have put in incredible performances in the ongoing IPL. Ponting is unsure if Pant will be able to play again after his horrific crash in December 2022. But with remarkable resilience since his return to action, the impact the DC head coach has made leaves little doubt who should be on the plane to New York at the end of the IPL.
“Do I believe Rishabh should be in the World Cup squad? I absolutely do. At the end of the IPL, he should be in the WT20 squad,” Ponting told PTI in an exclusive interview.
“I think we’ve seen what Rishabh has done in the IPL over the last five or six years and now back in the Indian team,” the Australian batting superstar added.
While he admitted that the Indian selectors had a lot of options to choose from as a wicketkeeper-batsman, Pant remained his first choice.
“We certainly know there is a lot of depth in Indian cricket. For the wicketkeeper-batsmen, I feel some are in really good form at the moment. (Ishan) Kishan is playing well, (Sanju) Samson is playing well, KL Rahul is playing well very good.
“There are many options but if I have to pick a team, I will have Rishabh Pant every week,” decided the ‘punter’.
Ponting has shared a special bond with Pant since taking over as DC coach and is excited to see him giving his all again.
“Rishabh’s return to international cricket is fantastic. I spent a lot of time with him during the last IPL and a lot of us were doubtful whether he would actually play again and it was such a scary game. “I’ve spoken to him about the accident and I’m not sure if he will race again. ” But like all champions, Pant refused to admit defeat.
“There was never any doubt in his mind that he would be back playing again. With every game going on, we started seeing a better and better version of Rishabh Pant, compared to what he had done before with his batting in the last few games. “As soon as the match started, he started moving behind the stumps,” the coach sounded ecstatic.
The gulf between Ricky Bhui and Ranji Trophy and IPL
Delhi Capitals have often been criticized for their domestic scouting process as most of their uncapped players have failed to set the stage on fire. A case in point is Ricky Bhui, who scored a staggering 902 runs in the Ranji Trophy, but on the IPL stage, the Andhra captain looks like an unfinished work.
When asked, Ponting tried to defend the scouting process. But he did put things in perspective and talked about the huge gulf and the challenges for an uncapped domestic player to suddenly raise his game to match the international standards of the IPL.
“The point you made about Ricky Bhui is a perfect example. He’s had a great season and looked incredible every time he put the ball in the net last month, but when he Against Nandre Burger, he had never seen such fast bowling, never faced a guy who could bowl at 140 kmph and execute a perfect bouncing second ball, you’re for sure Will feel sorry for the players but I don’t think we did anything wrong in terms of recruitment,” Ponting said.
One of the biggest issues for Ponting is the absence of their top auction pick, Harry Brooke.
“You have to remember that our top pick, Harry Brooke, decided not to come. We were hardly sure how much we were supposed to get out of Rishabh if he came on, let alone keeping and batting.
“One of our strategies was to look for a second wicketkeeper-batsman, which we did in Kushagra,” he said.
“There’s no doubt that an important part of scouting is to look for players who can take the next step forward, too quickly, because it’s a big step up from playing domestic cricket in India to playing in the IPL,” he reasoned.
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Virat Kohli scored an IPL century off 67 balls this season, MI’s Rohit Sharma accomplished the feat in 61 deliveries, while Travis Head needed just 39 balls to reach the milestone.
Are 60-ball 100 runs in T20 openers slowly becoming a thing of the past? Ponting gave an insightful explanation.
“It doesn’t have to be a 40-ball 100 (every time). It also depends on the scoring rate of other batsmen around you. There’s no benefit in getting a 60-ball 100 if the guy at the other end is also scoring a 100 – —rate and then you usually get 180 (MI 186/6 vs. CSK),” Ponting said.
“Like Travis Head last night, he’s becoming a very good white-ball player, but if you don’t have an eighth batsman, the impact player, I don’t know if teams are going to be as good as they are Yes, attacking like that now,” Ponting concluded.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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