Out of the Test team, which demands plenty of patience and restraint to go with skill, Shikhar Dhawan and Rishabh Pant were back at the India nets on Saturday doing what they are best known for—give the ball a mighty thwack—as they prepared for the first T20 against Bangladesh.
With the rest of the batsmen relatively inexperienced and less acclaimed, the two, with skipper Rohit Sharma, will be important if India are to outscore Bangladesh on a Ferozeshah Kotla wicket that looks good but could also aid spinners.
On Friday, as Pant was hitting rasping straight shots, coach Ravi Shastri shouted, “Be careful. Make sure you don’t hit him (the one giving throw-downs).”
Pant is a hard-hitter, a match-winner with the bat. None of the other wicket-keeping options can match his ability to score quickly, and produce boundaries frequently. He transformed his batting in IPL, holding the middle order for Delhi Capitals and helping them enter the playoffs. However, his unpolished wicket-keeping kept him out of the Test series against South Africa.
Former India batsman and coach Anshuman Gaekwad recently told HT, “He still has some distance to cover in wicket-keeping to match MS Dhoni or Wriddhiman Saha.” However, the team management knows he is too valuable to be left out of the T20 squad. India have Sanju Samson and Pant as the two wicket-keeping options in this series—KL Rahul is the other option. But the team will give Pant, who played the ODI World Cup as a batsman, a good run.
