Rishabh Pant has drawn flak over the last few months for his poor show behind the stumps. But former India cricketer Farokh Engineer backed the young stumper and suggested that it is important to ‘nurse a young wicketkeeper’ and give him the confidence to bounce back.
Recalling his meeting with Pant at the Old Trafford in Manchester during the World Cup earlier this year, Engineer said: “We had a long chat for half-an-hour. I wish I had him with me for just two or three nets sessions and he would have been a much, much better wicketkeeper. I have that confidence.”
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Speaking at the 11th Dilip Sardesai Memorial Lecture on Wednesday evening, Engineer also suggested that the below par performance have brought the 22-year-old Pant’s morale down. “Now, there are batting coaches, fielding coaches. What can a fielding coach tell Rishabh Pant about wicketkeeping? Everybody is there to criticise the young man. The poor guy has so much pressure on him. He is scared to even hold the ball, in case he drops a catch,” he said.
“He is an extremely talented wicketkeeper, but his technique is flawed. He gets up too soon. These days, they have batsman-wicketkeepers and not wicketkeeper-batsman,” said the former glovesman.
Engineer was all praise for India’s Test stumper Wriddhiman Saha. “Saha for example, is a wicketkeeper-batsman. He is predominantly a wicketkeeper. He rises with the ball. It’s difficult to stand up and going down again. You are wasting a fraction of second which could be very useful for a quick stumping. You stay as long as you can,”he said.
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