Former Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh has backed Rishabh Pant to lead India in the longest format of the game in future. For those who have doubts over Pant’s leadership skills, Yuvraj cited former Indian skipper MS Dhoni’s example, who was made captain of the side “out of nowhere”.
“You must get someone ready. Like Mahi became captain out of nowhere but they made him, right! Then he evolved. Keeper is always a good thinker because he always has the best view on the ground,” Yuvraj said on Sports18's show ‘Home of Heroes’.
Earlier this year Rohit Sharma was made the all-format skipper after Virat Kohli stepped down from the role following India’s defeat on South African soil. While Rohit is an experienced campaigner, at 34, he is not expected to lead India more than five years. At the same time, Yuvraj does not want too many expectations to be pinned on Pant if he dons the captaincy hat in whites.
“You pick a young guy who can be a future captain, give him time and don’t expect miracles in the first six months or a year. I feel you must believe in the younger guys to get the job done,” the ‘Player of series’ of World Cup 2011 said.
The legendary cricketer also hailed Pant’s maturity considering his age as he further said, “I was immature at that age, Virat was immature when he was captain at that age. But he (Pant) is maturing with time. I don’t know how the support staff think about it, but I think he is the right guy to lead the Test team.”
Yuvraj also believes that the 23-year-old wicketkeeper-batter is a future legend. “You already have four Test hundreds. In terms of best wicket-keeper batsman, I see Rishabh could be the future legend,” he concluded.
Pant took over Delhi Capitals’ (DC) captaincy after Shreyas Iyer injured his shoulder last year. Pant was retained as captained by the franchise while Shreyas was released and was picked by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as captain. So far, Pant has led DC in 23 games from which he has a winning percentage of 54.34.
