Management should have backed Pant, feels Virender Sehwag
Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag came out hard on the Indian team management for constantly leaving out Rishabh Pant from the limited overs-squad. He believes the communication within the management should have been clear after he was dropped recently. The 22-year-old hasn't been able to make a comeback thereafter with KL Rahul being deemed for the wicket-keeping role.
Recent numbers don't do justice to his talent
Rishabh Pant hasn't been able to perform well with the bat lately. In 2019, he scored 305 runs in 12 ODIs at an average of 27.72. His record in the shortest format is meagre too. In 16 T20Is last year, he made 252 runs at 21. His wicket-keeping skills are also questionable with quite a few dropped catches and shoddy DRS calls.
Management's approach has been under the scanner
Perpetual chopping and changing of the playing XI has taken a toll on the individual performances in the past couple of years. A classic testimony of this fact is the 'No.4' turmoil which was backed by the inability to back players. Here as well, the focus swiftly got shifted to KL Rahul after Pant suffered a concussion in the first ODI against Australia.
Captain should have proper communication with the players: Sehwag
"How will he score runs? If you feel he's the match-winner why don't you play him?" Sehwag said during the Cricbuzz talk show. He added, "During our time, captain used to talk with the player. I don't know if Kohli does the same or not."
The former Indian opener quotes Dhoni's example
The infamous tussle between two of India's greatest superstars Virender Sehwag and MS Dhoni dished out quite a few speculations after the former was dropped form the Indian squad in 2012. Slamming the Indian team management for poorly handling Rishabh Pant, Sehwag opened up about the latter's rotation policy which made waves back then. Here's what he reiterated.
We didn't have clarification about the move: Sehwag
"When Dhoni said in Australia said that top three are slow fielders, we were never consulted. He said at the press conference but not at the team meeting that we are slow fielders," Sehwag stated.
