Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has heaped praise on wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, who has been in fine form so far in the ongoing series against England. Manjrekar feels that the 27-year-old should be left free to play the way he wants as he has shown brilliant results while batting with his aggressive style. The former batter also made a big claim and stated that the England team fears the 27-year-old.
"Rishabh Pant will play in his way no matter what the situation is. He should get that license because he deserves it. The batting unit has to function well. Jaiswal must think a bit about how he got out. He should make use of his form. Pant, I feel, is a big player at No.5. He is a batter who England fear," Manjrekar said on Star Sports.
Pant has been in terrific form so far in the series, scoring a total of 425 runs in six innings, including two centuries and half-centuries each. The first Test of the series which was held at Headingley, saw the left-hander become the first Indian wicketkeeper-batter to hit twin tons in a Test match. Pant recorded scores of 134 and 118 in the first and second innings respectively of the first Test and got his series off to a fantastic start.
Then at Edgbaston, Pant recorded scores of 25 and 65 in the first and second innings respectively, playing a key role in setting up a mammoth target of 608 for the hosts. The big target proved to be too much for the Three Lions, who slumped to a heavy 336-run defeat.
Pant ended up getting injured during the third Test
Finally, in the third Test at Lord's, Pant did manage to post a great individual score of 74 in the first innings, however was only able to score nine runs in the all-important second innings where the Men in Blue failed to chase down the target of 193. However, the wicketkeeper-batter also ended up sustaining an injury to his left index finger during the match which saw him not being able to keep wickets.
In his place, Dhruv Jurel kept the wickets for the visitors in the first and the second innings as well. It is not yet confirmed if Pant has fully recovered from the injury so it will definitely be interesting to see if he will be able to make it to India's playing XI for the fourth Test of the series which is set to be played in Manchester from July 23.