Veteran wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik heaped huge praise on young glovesman Rishabh Pant after his ferocious 50-run knock against Sri Lanka in the 2nd innings of the day-night Test match at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
Pant, on Sunday, smashed a 28-ball half-century, setting the record of fastest fifty by an Indian batter in the longest format of the game. He broke the long-standing record of legendary India captain Kapil Dev who smashed a 30-ball half-century way back in 1982 against Pakistan in Karachi.
“You have to say that Rishabh Pant is on his way to greatness. I think if he has a full-fledged wicketkeeping career for India, he will end up being one of the greats along with MS Dhoni. These two will stand out as India’s greatest wicketkeepers who have played the game,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
The 24-year-old walked out to bat after India lost Hanuma Vihari in the post-tea session. After the dismissal of Virat Kohli, Pant teamed up with Shreyas Iyer and stitched a 45-run stand for the fifth wicket. The former smashed 7 boundaries and 2 sixes to get his 9th half-century in Test cricket.
Talking about Pant’s batting approach, Karthik said that the flamboyant southpaw reminds him of former India opener Virender Sehwag who also had the ability to smash boundary at ease in Test cricket.
“Rishabh Pant has the game to take risks and consistently be good at it. Also he reminds me of Virender Sehwag, in the sense that when the field is up, he has the ability to hit boundaries at ease right from the get-go and that makes him a very special Test player. Test cricket in many ways is a boundary-hitting format for him,” he added.
