Ashish Nehra advises Rishabh Pant to focus more on batting

Rishabh Pant’s form has been the talking point for Indian Cricket since his below-par performance in the Indian T20 league 2022. The rising star is garnering a lot of attention from cricket pundits over poor run in the recent past. Former Indian fast bowler Ashish Nehra believes that Pant needs to focus more on his batting as he has got enough experience playing in this format.

Pant had a forgettable 2022 season with the bat and now that he’s captaining the side, he’s under a lot more pressure to perform. With a victory under his belt in the third and fourth T20I, it is expected that Pant will come back to his usual form in the fifth game.

“Now, Rishabh might only be 24, but he has been playing in the Indian T20 League for five years now. So, he is an experienced player now, at least in this format. There will always be pressure on him because there’s a lot of competition. Suryakumar Yadav is there, and Virat Kohli will also return in the future. That will happen. In this series, I would want Rishabh Pant to focus more on his batting than his batting position,” Nehra told Cricbuzz prior to the fourth T20I against South Africa.

Meanwhile, the Indian team will take the field to win the series against South Africa in the fifth T20I on Sunday, 19th June, in Bengaluru. The Men in Blue found themselves 2-0 down after the second T20I but have kept themselves alive in the series with a resounding win in the next two games.

The 24-year-old batter has struggled to make an impact in the ongoing T20 series so far with scores of 29, 5, 6 and 17 in four games, but Nehra believes he’s just one innings away from regaining his form. He further advised him to talk to senior players like Hardik Pandya and Rahul Dravid to help him out.

“It (the batting position) doesn’t make a big difference. How he captains, how much better can he perform. He needs only one innings to get his mindset changed. It is important he doesn’t take too much pressure upon himself. Senior players like Hardik Pandya and even Rahul Dravid should help him there,” the 2011 World Cup Winner added.