“He has got 2 days. Needs to sit down and introspect”: Sunil Gavaskar shares valuable advice for struggling captain Rishabh Pant

After losing 2 back-to-back matches, India won the 3rd contest, staying alive in the game. The team failing to win has put a lot of pressure on Rishabh Pant who was made the captain as KL Rahul injured himself. Pant has experience captaining Delhi Capitals in the IPL. However, leading the national side put tremendous pressure on a player. Moreover, he has failed to perform with the bat as well. Veteran cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has advised struggling Rishabh Pant to introspect his batting. In addition, big shots have failed to work for Rishabh and Sunny believes that playing in the V would help him find his rhythm back. According to Gavaskar, with a win, Pant would get some confidence to now asses his own perfromances.

Sunil Gavaskar shares valuable advice for struggling captain Rishabh Pant

“People expect that he will come along and start hitting the ball for boundaries and sixes. That is something, which because of what he has performed over the last 3-4 years, people have come to expect, and therefore there is that disappointment. But what I think he needs to do, is introspect. What happens during captaincy often is that sometimes you are not thinking about your own game. You are thinking about the game of others – bowlers or batters. So you forget that there may be some technical issue with your own batting. And that is what he has to sit down and think. He has got 2 days. First and foremost, he will feel a lot better that India have won. So that little bit of pressure is off. It will give him a little bit of relief and he has got to think about his batting now.

He must think ‘I am getting out hitting deliveries. It is not coming in my arc. I have even moved outside off stump and yet I am not able to do that. So now what do I do? Do I try to make my off-side shots better? Do I have to only look at playing on the on-side? Can I use my power and my timing? Can I start hitting it straight? Or should I hit over extra cover?’ And that’s the danger part because that is where you slice the ball. And so unless you really hit it well, you are going to be caught in the deep. Hit the ball straight and he will still get the sixes.” 

Sunil Gavaskar