India head coach Rahul Dravid has backed Rishabh Pant, saying he remains “an integral part” of the side despite the wicketkeeper-batsman managing just 58 carries in the five T20Is against South Africa with a batting average of 105.45. Pant had 340 runs with an average of 30.90 in IPL 2022. His batting average at the tournament was 151.78, significantly higher than the last two editions – 113.95 in 2020 and 128.52 in 2021. Dravid said the team expects him to play a similar attacking role at international level.
“When you ask people to play a little more offensive brand of cricket in the middle overs and take the game a little bit more, it’s sometimes hard to judge on a two or three game basis,” Dravid said after the washed up – our fifth T20I in Bengaluru.
“I thought he had a pretty good IPL. He might not have looked good on average, but his batting average was really good. He was trying to bring that up a little – to where he was probably three years ago. We’re hopeful that we can get numbers like that from him at international level too, so he might go wrong in a couple of games.
“But he remains an integral part of our batting team. We know what he does with his power. The fact that he’s left-handed is also very important to us in the middle overs. And he played some good shots. Of course, personally, he would have liked to have scored a few more runs, but that’s not so worrying. For us he is certainly a very big part of our plans for the next few months.”
Dinesh Karthik, on the other hand, continues to impress in his niche role as a final-five-over-only batter. In the fourth T20I at Rajkot, Karthik had smashed a 27-ball 55, the kind of knock that Dravid said “surely gets you started”. Karthik and Hardik Pandya, who hit 46 of 31 deliveries, had added 65 of 33 balls to take India to 169 in what turned out to be a winning total.
“He was chosen for a very specific ability,” Dravid said of Karthik. “And it’s nice if that suggests in a way it came together brilliantly for us in the Rajkot game where we needed that great performance in the last five overs to get a score. Him and Hardik [Pandya] did wonderfully for us; Both are our enforcers in the end, lads who can capitalize on those final five-six overs.
“They’re probably two of the best in the world in those last five to six overs. So, yes, it was really nice to see Karthik depart and do what he was chosen to do. It certainly opens up a lot more opportunities. Innings like this will surely make you sit up and take notice. Like I told the guys, it’s not about knocking on the door — you have to start slamming the door, and an innings like that certainly means he’s knocking really hard.
“Shryas, in the early part [of the series] on tricky wickets, showed intention and played positively. Ruturaj pointed in a given innings [in the third T20I] what quality and ability he has.”
India coach Rahul Dravid
Since Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli weren’t part of the series, fringe players were given the opportunity to present their cases. Ishan Kishan hit 206 runs – by far the most in the series – with a batting average of 150.36, but Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shreyas Iyer failed to impress. Gaikwad had just 96 carries in five innings at a batting average of 131.50 and Iyer had 94 carries at 123.68. But Dravid is not disappointed in them.
“We will not show knee-jerk reactions,” he said. “As you can see, I don’t like judging people by a series or a game. Each of the guys who got the opportunity here really deserved the opportunity; they deserve it. And in this format of the game you’re going to have some good games and some bad games.
“I think Shreyas, in the early part [of the series] on a couple of tricky wickets, showed a lot of intent and played really positively for us. Ruturaj pointed in a given innings [in the third T20I] what quality and skills he has.
“In Twenty20 you can have one or two games [where] Their form and performance goes up and down a bit. So we are not very disappointed in anyone. As a group we wanted to play a little bit more positive and attacking cricket from the start. And we knew you, if you try, it won’t always work. But we’re certainly clear about what kind of cricket we want to play.”