Indian wicket keeper Rishabh Pant’s form hasn’t been great of late as he scored only 59 runs in the first two Tests in the ongoing series against South Africa. Former Proteas pacer Morne Morkel feels, the southpaw may find himself in trouble if doesn’t get runs quickly.
“For me, Pant is a quality player but I would rather let the bat do the talking at the moment than him behind the stumps. I reckon before you know, a couple of low scores and he’s going to find himself in trouble there. fighting for a spot in the team. I’m quite surprised with that,” Morkel told Star Sports.
Rishabh Pant has gone relatively cold since his heroics against Australia earlier this year. He played two sensational knocks in Sydney and Brisbane. Since then, apart from his century against England at home, Pant has scored only one half-century in 13 innings, out of which five have produced single-digit scores. Earlier in England, he managed only 146 runs in 7 innings with an average of 20.85. In fact, couldn’t cross the fifty-mark in his last 13 Test innings.
The focus so far has been on the trio of Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, and Virat Kohli. India’s middle order is struggling to get big scores and it’s a matter of time before the miasma of criticism gets to Pant. It is not just lack of runs, his dismissal made quite a big headlines as the 24-year-old played a rash shot against Rabada to get out on duck in the second innings of the Wanderers Test. He also received a lot of criticism from former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar.
The third and final Test match starts in Cape Town from January 11. This provides Pant with excellent opportunity to prove himself.
