Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], February 14 (ANI): India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said that Rishabh Pant is working “incredibly hard” on his wicket-keeping and is confident that the latter will go from strength to strength.
Pant produced a brilliant catch on Day 2 of the second Test against England off Mohammed Siraj’s delivery to dismiss Ollie Pope here on Sunday. However, in the first Test against England, Pant had missed an easy stumping off Ashwin’s delivery.
While backing Pant to perform well with the gloves, Ashwin said that it becomes “really hard” for the player when he is constantly compared to others. Ashwin said Pant has been compared to MS Dhoni for a long time and now the comparisons are drawn with Wriddhiman Saha.
“With respect to Rishabh Pant’s keeping, the name of the game is confidence. He has been batting well and he has been working incredibly hard on his keeping as well. When you are constantly being compared to someone who has done well for years, it can be really hard,” Ashwin said in the press conference at the end of the day’s play.
“I really do feel for Rishabh on a lot of occasions even when I am watching games from home when he is playing the white-ball format. He was constantly compared with the great MS Dhoni for a long time and now he gets compared for his wicket-keeping with Saha,” Ashwin said.
“I think sometimes it is better to give a break and let people build on the confidence. And he definitely got the ability, that is why he is here and I have no doubt, he will go from strength to strength from here on,” he added.
In the second Test against England, India are in a commanding position and Ashwin made a massive contribution to put the hosts in the driver’s seat. With the help of Ashwin’s five-wicket haul, India managed to end England’s first innings on 134 runs.
Earlier, in the first innings, India had scored 329 runs with the help of Rohit Sharma (161), Ajinkya Rahane (67), and Pant (58*). At stumps on Day 2, India’s score read 54/1 in the second innings and enjoy a 249-run lead.
Ashwin is delighted with his performance and said the fans made the achievement even better.
“It is wonderful to have the crowd back. We had not played with crowds in India for a long time and the Indian cricket fans were also waiting to get back and watch the sport. Also, playing in front of my home crowd is always special for me and to get 5 wickets here is something that I will always cherish and in front of the crowd is even better,” he said. (ANI)
