Former Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has shed light on Rishabh Pant’s batting stance ahead of the Test series against Sri Lanka. Ashwin observed that Pant is going to play a defensive shot if he holds the bat steadily on the ground.
Ashwin added that if Pant is going to attack, he will keep lifting and hitting the bat onto the ground. Pant has an impressive record in the red-ball version of the game and he recently scored a fine knock of 81 runs off 121 balls in the one-off Test match against Afghanistan.
The left-hander is currently not part of India’s white-ball teams, and this Test series will be crucial for him after a mundane IPL 2026 for Lucknow Super Giants.
It is well known that the left-hander has the skills to turn a match on its head with his blistering batting while batting at number five.
Ashwin noted that modern-day batters play with a lot of premeditation and Rishabh Pant is part of the group.
He said on his YouTube Channel, “Modern-day Test batters are premeditating a lot of shots. For example, I’ve a few markers for Rishabh Pant. If Pant holds the bat steadily on the ground, he is going to play a defensive shot. If he’s going to attack, he will keep lifting and hitting the bat onto the ground. ”
“So to Pant, you can bowl as much outside offstump as possible. To him, I will never keep the stumps in play. The number of times he gets LBW or bowled early on is minimal. Keep bowling outside offstump and challenge him by asking how long he’ll stay patient.”
On the other hand, Ashwin added that India’s left-handed duo of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant can not play defensively for a long time.
“Yashasvi Jaiswal is similar to Pant. They cannot play defense for a long time. But the problem is Sri Lanka doesn’t have the spinner that can execute this monotonously for a long period of time. India are better in the spin department with Jadeja’s experience, Suthar’s quality, and Kuldeep’s experience, guile, and mystery,” said Ashwin (via the aforementioned source).
India will face Sri Lanka in the first Test at Galle from August 15.
