Former Indian batter Suresh Raina wants attacking batter Rishabh Pant to play with more responsibility in the 50-over format. Pant recently scored 255 runs in five Test matches against Australia at an average of 28.33 but his shot selection was questioned after India lost the MCG Test by 184 runs.
The pugnacious batter has scored 871 runs in 31 ODI matches at an average of 33.5. On the other hand, Pant has scored 1209 runs in 76 T20Is at an average of 23.25 and thus he doesn’t have a great T20I record.
Pant has been picked in India’s Champions Trophy squad ahead of Sanju Samson. However, KL Rahul is expected to be India’s first-choice wicket-keeper in the marquee tournament.
Suresh Raina said on Star Sports Press Room, “Definitely Pant; his wicket-keeping has improved. But he has to play with more responsibility in a 50-over game. If he stays there for 40-50 balls he can take the game away from the opposition, but he needs to spend more time at the crease.”
On the other hand, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma has been under the scanner for his ordinary performance on the Australian tour. Rohit could only manage 31 runs in five innings at an average of 6.20 against Australia however Raina backed the veteran right-hander to come good in the Champions Trophy.
“Rohit has the capacity, he has team but what will be important is our 11-player combination out of 15. The wickets will be a bit slow, but we have the capacity.”
India will begin their Champions Trophy campaign against Bangladesh in Dubai on February 20.
India squad for the Champions Trophy: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Rishabh Pant(wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah*, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal
