India vs South Africa: Ashish Nehra says Rishabh Pant should focus more on his form than where he bats

Former India pacer Ashish Nehra is of the opinion that Rishabh Pant , currently India’s skipper for the South Africa home T20Is, has to focus more on his batting rather than his batting position.

Pant had an average outing with the bat for Delhi Capitals (DC) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) this season, scoring 340 runs from 14 games at an average of 30.91., without scoring a single fifty. His poor form continued in the ongoing T20I series against South Africa, registering scores of 29, 6 and 6, across the three T20Is played so far, all while batting at number four, in the absence of stars like Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav.

Nehra, though, termed Pant an experienced player at least in the T20 format. Pant has amassed 2,838 runs from 98 matches in his IPL career so far, with 15 fifties and one century. 2022 was the first season where Pant failed to notch up a single fifty in his seven-year IPL career.

“If you look at the IPL this year, Ricky Ponting said that Rishabh Pant was very unhappy with his performances in the season. Now, Rishabh might only be 24, but he has been playing in the IPL for five years now. So, he is an experienced player now, at least in this format,” said Nehra on Cricbuzz.

Nehra went onto say that competition with the likes of Kohli and Yadav are inevitable, but urged the 24-year-old to focus on his batting instead of which position he bats in.

“Such experiences give confidence to players. From here, he wants to be better. He’s playing at the No 4 role in international cricket, and obviously, there will always be pressure on him because there’s a lot of competition. Suryakumar Yadav is there, 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,” the former Delhi cricketer added.

Nehra’s message to Pant was not to take too much pressure on himself, and that one innings could change Pant’s mindset.

“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,” added the 43-year-old.

India currently trail South Africa 1-2 in the five-match series but will look to maintain the momentum they built from the third T20I. The fourth T20I takes place in Rajkot on Friday, and the Men in Blue will hope to level the series and force it into a decider in Bengaluru on Sunday. Pant is leading the side in place of the injured KL Rahul, who was initially named skipper for the series.

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