Kolkata: After watching Rishabh Pant’s power hitting against Sunrisers Hyderabad last night, former India skipper Sourav Ganguly feels that the young wicket-keeper batsman of Delhi Daredevils will definitely get his chance to play for the nation when proper time will come.
Pant destroyed one of the best bowling attacks of the tournament last night as he scored 128 runs from 63 deliveries which is the highest T20 score by any Indian.
“For Rishabh it will happen, he will get there… I think he is the future,” Ganguly said at a promotional programme in Kolkata today.
The blistering knock came just two days after the young sensation was not picked in India’s T20 squad for the Ireland and England tour.
“For the likes of Pant, Ishan Kishan (who scored a 21-ball 52), time will come. They are young there’s no hurry. They will get matured as they play more games with time. They will play for India in the years to come.
“But having said that consistency is important, hope it’s not just one off. I was reading about Ishan Kishan after that knock in Kolkata. When you pick someone for the country, you look at consistency — how many times does he keep doing that. Yes, T20 is different, opportunities are a lot lesser.”
Defending the selectors decision, Ganguly said: “At the present moment MS Dhoni is there. You can’t replace MS at the moment, then you have Dinesh Karthik who also deserves a chance in the national side, especially after what he did in Sri Lanka to win that game which was absolutely lost for India. Dinesh deserves more than anybody else because I think he is a very very good player.”
After watching Pant’s knock, Ganguly somehow remembered the knock of Brendon McCullum’s knock of 158 runs from just 73 deliveries in the inaugural match of the history of IPL at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on April 18, 2008.
“I saw McCullum knock from the other end in the first game of IPL. I was batting with him, but to see Rishabh Pant play the way he did yesterday was phenomenal.”
“Delhi were struggling having lost a few wickets, he was involved in a couple of run outs and to come out and play like that for a young player was remarkable,” he hailed.