With less than a week left ahead of the first Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Optus Stadium in Perth, former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly made a huge claim and labelled the 27-year-old Indian star as the team's best red-ball batter after Virat Kohli.
Ganguly snubbed both emerging young talent Yashavi Jaiswal, who has taken Test cricket by storm since his debut, and Indian captain Rohit Sharma while giving the elusive tag to Rishabh Pant, who has quickly established himself as arguably India's greatest red-ball wicketkeeper batter. However, the former India captain did warn that Pant still has work to do in white-ball cricket.
"His special ability. He still needs to evolve and figure out his game in white-ball cricket. But in red ball, he is just fantastic. Look at the innings he has played in England, Australia and South Africa, and you will know he is a generational talent in red-ball cricket. He is India’s next-best red-ball batter after Kohli, and could have a huge impact in the series," said Ganguly.
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Pant was key to India's victory in the BGT on Australian soil in the last two tours. During the 2018-19 tour, he was the second-highest run-getter in the series with 350 runs in four matches, including a century. Meanwhile, he was India's most prolific run scorer in 2020-21 with 274 runs in five innings, which included the memorable four-inning knocks at Sydney and Gabba.
In the same interaction, Ganguly also backed Virat Kohli to come out of a tough run of form following a forgettable outing against New Zealand and deliver in Australia.
"Absolutely, he is a champion batter. And he has had success in Australia in the past. He scored four hundreds in 2014, scored a hundred in 2018 as well. He will want to make this series count, and he will also know this could be the last time he is touring Australia to play Test cricket. So, in every sense, this is a massive series for Kohli. I don’t want to read too much into the New Zealand series. The pitches did not allow good batting. In Australia, he will enjoy the conditions. There will be good pitches. I am backing Virat to deliver in Australia in this series," said Ganguly.