India vs England: Rishabh Pant’s technique under the scanner after modest scores | Cricket News – Times of India

Batsman finding it difficult to handle swing in England
Three years ago, Rishabh Pant announced himself on the international stage with a brilliant, counter-attacking century at The Oval. It couldn’t save the Test match for India, but it marked the beginning of a journey of a wicketkeeper batsman who would go on to make that spot his own in the Indian team.
On Thursday, we will be again back at The Oval and this time there’s a series that is hanging in the balance. And if India are to go on to take a step towards a series victory, he needs to get going.
25, 37, 22, 2 and 1 are Pant’s returns from this series so far, and that’s simply not enough from a No. 6 batsman in a team that is playing with only six specialist batsmen. In Australia, he was phenomenal playing at that spot, winning that series for India. Even at home against England, he played a match-winning hand on a dust-bowl in Ahmedabad. But it is on the seaming conditions of England that Pant is struggling.

The swing of James Anderson and Ollie Robinson is troubling the 24-yearold and that’s why he has decided to stand outside the crease, trying to meet the ball early and negate the swing. It worked brilliantly for Virat Kohli in 2018 in England and that’s probably one of the reasons why it has become the standard template for most Indian batsman to be compulsively on the front-foot, Pant being no exception. It defies the age-old theory of using the back-foot and playing late in English conditions, but no one complains as long as it works.
“Pant has got most of his runs that way, he got tons of it in Australia and you will have to give him the time and allow him to flourish. I don’t think he needs to change anything drastically in the middle of the series,” former India wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik told TOI.
But the problem is that the conditions in England and Australia aren’t similar. In Australia the ball doesn’t seam or swing as much and playing through the line with hard hands isn’t always dangerous, provided the batsman’s hand-eye co-ordination is spot on.
Another former Indian keeper, Deep Dasgupta, feels Pant, instead of trying to tweak his technique midway through the tour, can look to tighten up his defence just that little bit. “It is important that Pant’s thought process is not jumbled up. If Pant gets going in one innings, he will probably win you the Test match…So you can take that little bit of chance with him. But saying that, Rishabh can still try to be a little careful about his shot-selection,” Dasgupta said.
He felt that instead of throwing his hands towards the ball, something that has brought about Pant’s downfall a few times in this series, the swashbuckler can try and play a little closer to his body. “The likes of Anderson and Robinson know how to use these conditions brilliantly and get left-handers in that channel outside the off-stump bowling over the wicket. But if Pant can deal with it initially, he can always do his own jazz — coming down the track or whatever,” Dasgupta added.
The fact that the bandwagon moves to The Oval, where historically, the ball doesn’t do as much off the seam, should stand Pant in good stead. He will surely take confidence from the first Test century that he scored in this ground. “Pant knows how to deal with these conditions. He is a match-winner and I believe he will come good,” Karthik said.