‘Another Adam Gilchrist’ – Rishabh Pant lives up to lofty billing
He has earned praise from some of the best to have played the game...
Ricky Ponting:“He is a real talent and an incredibly good ball striker. He has got a really good game sense as well. He is someone who could play a lot of Test cricket for India across formats. He has got to do a bit of work on his keeping and he will also become a better batsman.
“We talk about MS Dhoni all the time and his impact on Indian cricket. He played a lot of Tests for India but made only six Test hundreds. This kid will make a lot more Test hundreds than that. We talk about him in the commentary box and he is sort of like another Adam Gilchrist.”
Adam Gilchrist: “He's a cricketer that is at the start of his journey so he'll learn these particular parts of the game and he'll learn that there's always more time than what you think, but he's got a great foundation to be a successful Test cricketer. He's a cricketer that I would happily pay to watch.”
Rahul Dravid:“He is obviously a very talented player. He showed in three or four innings that he was willing to bat differently. We all know the way he bats. Even in the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy season when he got over 900 runs his strike-rate was 100 plus and we have seen him bat similarly in the IPL as well.
“He showed that he could bat differently. He has the temperament and skills to bat differently. He is always going to be an attacking player but reading of the situation when you are playing red-ball cricket is required.”
… And now he has some of the stats to justify the hype.
4– 90-plus scores since his Test debut in August 2018. No other player has more such scores in that time.
2– Test hundreds made away from home. No other Indian wicket-keeper has more than one.
1– Pant is the first Indian wicket-keeper to score a Test ton in England, and also the first to do so in Australia.
74– Rishabh Pant’s strike-rate in Test cricket. No other player who has scored more than 500 runs since Pant’s debut has done so at a faster rate
11– Catches taken by Rishabh Pant against Australia at Adelaide. No wicket-keeper has ever effected more dismissals. England’s Jack Russell and South Africa’s AB de Villiers are the only two to equal the mark.