Rishabh Pant has had a bright start to his international career across all the formats. He has replaced MS Dhoni in the shortest format and there is this added pressure on him to step up and deliver. He gave a great account of himself in Brisbane in the first T20I, but then perished trying to be too cute and this impeded India's chase.
Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly has asked the young man to be more careful in his shot selection and to adapt according to the match situation.
"Rishabh Pant could've won the match for India with Dinesh Karthik. The way he was batting with Karthik and took the match close for India, the shot didn't have any value," Ganguly told IndiaTV.
With the point and third man fielder up inside the circle, Pant tried to reverse scoop a full ball over the in-field but ended up skewing it straight to the man at cover and Ganguly believes that the senior players in the side need to speak to the young man.
'Not concerned with his form'
"He is a young player and somebody needs to tell him that when he has the ability and power to hit straight, he doesn't need to play these kinds of shots. He is not in bad form. He just has to change his shot selection. It is not a difficult thing to do. I am not concerned with his form," Ganguly added.
He will get another chance to cement his place in the side. The Indian management has backed him with the gloves and now he needs to step up and start winning games from the middle order.
Ganguly also believes that India have it in them to bounce back from the loss in Brisbane and they need to sort out just a couple of things. He also expressed hope that Indian captain Virat Kohli will bounce back and be amongst the runs in Melbourne.
"Virat will take a little time to get used to T20 cricket as he hasn't played this format for some time. But he is a quality player and will perform well in the next match," the former captain said.
