I am glad that Rishabh Pant is being given the confidence to perform well. The team is giving 100 percent importance to him and he is being batting at number five.
At the same time, Pant has not disappointed the team management for this belief. Number five is such a position in Test cricket where a player has to play both spinners and pacers very well. Pant has done this work well with his aggressive attitude. Now after Pant at number five, Shreyas Iyer is at number six and Ravindra Jadeja at number seven. Obviously this is a great middle order. Because Pant plays aggressively, the importance of his runs increases even more. His style of play is very similar to that of his captain. Not only in the Indian team but in the IPL teams, there are many similarities in the captaincy of both. Both take decisions by being very relaxed. When you do well on the field, there is clarity in your decisions. I am glad that Pant is the first Indian wicket-keeper batsman to be awarded the best player in a Test series. This performance has come at a time when the spinners have been dominated by Sri Lanka. Even his wicket keeping has improved a lot. His forecast behind the wicket is very good. He has a very good idea of which side the ball will come if he misses if the batsman is stepping out. He is keeping with a very relaxed hand. It never seems that the ball will fall out of his hand.
Apart from Pant, Shreyas Iyer impressed a lot. He is consistently performing well in all three formats. He does a lot of power hitting. This makes the game exciting. Apart from this, the use of different types of balls in modern cricket today makes the game exciting. The selection of the ball and wicket according to the conditions matters a lot, which increases the challenges of today’s cricketer. He has to diversify his shots. In this case you have to update yourself. So that no one can understand your strategy. Today this task has become easier because of technology. Shreyas knew that it would be difficult if he kept playing. That’s why he adopted an aggressive approach, which was very effective. I would like to give the example of Kevin Pietersen here who used to play aggressively and get the ball into the stands. He also had good defense. Pant and Shreyas are also doing the same today. They have come to believe that they too are capable of getting the ball into the stands consistently. The only thing I would say about the rest of Virat Kohli is that he spends more time in the nets which will help him to correct his mistakes.
(The writer is a former wicketkeeper batsman and selector of Team India)