T20 World Cup 2024: Sanjay Manjrekar Praises Rishabh Pant As ‘Street-smart’ Cricketer

Rishabh Pant showed his excellence with the bat, on his return to India colours, during their only warm-up fixture against Bangladesh on June 01, at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium. The wicket-keeper batter looked in his supreme touch.
India went with a new opening combination of captain Rohit Sharma and Sanju Samson, as their young dynamic batter, Rishabh Pant walked into the middle at number three. At the start, the left-hand batter took his time a little bit before launching himself against the bowlers.
He nailed most of the spinners over the rope for sixes, besides drilling them for boundaries with fun, to celebrate an unbeaten knock of 53 runs in 32 balls, shouldering on four boundaries and as many as sixes, before getting retired out.
‘This is Rishabh Pant’s speciality’ – Sanjay Manjrekar
Rishabh Pant was coming into the T20 World Cup 2024, on the back of a very successful Indian Premier League (IPL) where he looked to be back in his old rhythm. The aggressive batter nailed 446 runs in 13 innings at an average of 40.55, and a strike rate of around 155.40 with three half-centuries.
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The Delhi Capitals captain drilled the opponent bowlers for 36 boundaries and 25 sixes throughout the season, as India looked quite satisfied with his return in form.
Former India player Sanjay Manjrekar praised Rishabh Pant for playing such a phenomenal knock during India’s warm-up game against the neighbouring country. He felt that even after having a struggling record in T20Is, Pant has shown his value.
‘The pitch was slightly difficult when he came to bat. We saw Sanju Samson getting out after scoring only one run off six balls. After that, he (Rishabh Pant) came and his specialty is that he is extremely street-smart and assesses very quickly what needs to be done,” Sanjay Manjrekar noted while reviewing the game on ‘Star Sports’.
The Uttarakhand-born batter has notched up 987 T20I runs in 56 innings, at an average of 22.43 and a strike rate of only 126.37, along with three half-centuries with a best of 65*-knock.
‘He is a batter who scored runs at a strike rate of almost 200 on a difficult pitch. This is Rishabh Pant’s specialty. His record in T20Is is very ordinary, an average close to 20 and a strike rate of 120 or lower, but we saw today what this guy can do,” Former Mumbai batter expressed during the discussion.
‘Actually, his best shots are against the pacers’ – Sanjay Bangar
What Pant did really well during the warm-up game was understanding the condition, and respecting the first few balls, which at the end has gone into helping him to smash those big shots.
Another former India batter Sanjay Bangar lauded the wicket-keeper batter for getting his eyes in before smacking those big shots.
‘Everyone will talk about the four fours and four sixes he hit but he scored only one run off his first six or seven deliveries. So, the best thing was that he gave himself time, especially against the spinners. We have the notion that he plays a lot of shots against spinners,” Punjab Kings (PBKS) coach elaborated.
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The retired all-rounder also spoke about how the veteran was comfortable against both the pacers and the spinners equally during the practice game.
‘Actually, his best shots are against the pacers and he gets out many times against spinners. Today he batted well against both pacers and spinners. So, I feel a stability has come into his mind considering the way he batted,” Bangar concluded.
Rishabh Pant will again be on action during India’s opening game against Ireland, on June 05, at the same ground.