We are grooming back ups for Rishabh Pant, reveals MSK Prasad

09/20/2019

Not that his days are numbered considering the talent that Rishabh Pant is but given his form he could be replaced any day and that has been made clear by the captain and the coach. Meanwhile, chief selector MSK Prasad has revealed that they have been preparing other youngsters as a backup for Pant.

After Ravi Shastri revealed his utter disapproval of how Rishabh Pant throws away his wicket, the West Indies tour being the biggest example, it was clear that the young gloveman's position in the team is being heavily scrutinized. And one more time Pant let his team down by throwing away his wicket, angling to and getting caught at short fine leg off just the fourth ball he faced, in the second T20I match against South Africa at Mohali on Wednesday.

In this light, India's chief selector MSK Prasad said that they have begun grooming backup players for the wicketkeeper position. However, the immensely talented Pant will remain the preferred first choice as India's gloveman. Prasad has always backed Pant to be MS Dhoni's replacement across formats and is still doing so but on the other hand, he is keeping players like KS Bharath, Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan as Pant's replacement options, just in case.

"We are monitoring the workload of Rishabh. Of course, we have been grooming backup players across all formats. We have the young KS Bharath doing well in the longer format for India A. We also have Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson doing well in the shorter formats for India ‘A’ and domestic cricket,” said MSK Prasad.

However, Prasad added that the selection committee has complete faith in Pant's ability despite his dipping form in limited-overs cricket.

“I have already said that post World Cup we have been concentrating on the progress of Rishabh. We need to be patient with him, considering the immense talent that he possesses,” the chief selector added.

India will play the third and final T20I against South Africa on Sunday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.