Saba Karim believes Rishabh Pant has been the principal contributor behind India qualifying for the World Test Championship final.
Rishabh Pant played a 97-run knock to help India draw the Sydney Test against Australia. He followed it up with an unbeaten 89 in the fourth innings of the Gabba Test to take India to a series-clinching win in the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The swashbuckling wicketkeeper-batsman was not done yet as he smashed a century in the final Test of the home series against England, a knock which helped India seal a place in the World Test Championship final.
During a discussion on India News, Saba Karim pointed out that Rishabh Pant has made the most significant contributions in India reaching this far and expected the youngster to play a similar role in the title-decider against New Zealand.
“I feel the World Test Championship final that is going to happen and after that the five Test matches in England, Rishabh Pant will have to play a huge role in that. We should not forget that Rishabh Pant has played a huge role in India reaching the World Test Championship final. If you ask me, I will say that in the entire Indian Test team, Rishabh Pant has had the biggest role in India reaching this stage, both as a batsman and with the wicketkeeping gloves,” said Karim.
The former India wicket-keeper highlighted Rishabh Pant’s emergence as a reliable batsman has allowed Virat Kohli the luxury of fielding five frontline bowlers in Test matches.
“Since the time Rishabh Pant has made his entry in the Indian Test team, the combination has become very good. Only because of Rishabh Pant, Virat Kohli goes into the ground with five bowlers. He knows that he has a reliable batsman like Rishabh Pant, who can come at No.6, bat at a fast pace and play match-winning knocks,” observed Karim.
