Speculation is rife about whether Rishabh Pant will be able to keep wickets or not during India’s fourth Test against England in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Pant injured his finger while keeping wickets on Day 1 of the dramatic third Test. Pant was forced off the field and Dhruv Jurel took the gloves for the rest of the match, with the former, however, still playing a crucial role with the bat in India’s first innings.
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It remains to be seen whether he will recover in time to take the gloves in the fourth Test at Old Trafford and former India wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer has said that Pant could play as a pure batsman. However, he needs to reduce the number of risky shots he goes for.
“Absolutely. Save those (risky shots) for IPL. Test cricket demands discipline,” Engineer, who 46 Tests for India between 1961 and 1975, is quoted as saying by RevSportz.”From a number three or four, you expect them to play proper cricket, get big scores, and build innings. Rishabh has scored centuries in both innings of a Test, which is remarkable. So yes, he could play purely as a batsman, especially with England’s strong bowling lineup, now including Jofra Archer and Atkinson.”
Pant has scored 425 runs at an average of 70.83 in the series thus far, making him the second highest run scorer after captain Shubman Gill. Engineer said that the fact that he had joked about Pant’s shot selection with him and the latter said that he just does whatever he feels is right in that moment.
“For the runs he’s scored, yes, he can play as a pure batter. But Rishabh is unpredictable. Whatever comes to his mind, he does it. I joked with him about his shot selection, and he just laughed—said he does what feels right in the moment. He has the confidence and has gotten away with it often. But he needs to be more responsible in crucial moments, like right before lunch or at the end of a day’s play. Still, he’s immensely talented. He invents his own shots, and thankfully, helmets allow that now. In our time, we wouldn’t have had any teeth left,” he added.