Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has said Rishabh Pant has the potential to build a long India career and likened the young wicket-keeper batsman to the legendary Adam Glichrist.
Pant scored a stylish 159* in the ongoing Sydney Test against Australia to put India in a position of strength, and on the brink of a historic series win. Pant’s innings broke many an Indian record.
Ponting, who has worked with the 21-year-old India keeper-batsman Pant in the IPL, was full of praise for the Sydney centurion.
“He’s a real talent and an incredibly good ball striker. He’s got a really good game sense as well,” Ponting told cricket.com.au in a chat.
“He’s already now into his second Test match hundred and a couple of 90s to go with it. Look, he is someone who could play a lot of cricket for India in all three formats. He is only 21 and into his ninth Test, so he could be around for a long time.”
Pant has already set the record for becoming the first Indian wicket-keeper to score Test centuries in England and Australia and on his first tour Down Under, has managed to score more runs than MS Dhoni did in three tours combined.
“He has got to do a bit of work on his keeping, and [with time] he’ll become a better cricketer but he’ll also become a better batsman. We talk about MS Dhoni all the time and his impact on Indian cricket. [Dhoni] played a lot of Tests for India but made only six Test hundreds. This kid will make a lot more Test hundreds than that,” he added.
“We talk about him in the commentary box and the way that he bats, he is sort of like another Adam Gilchrist.”