Former India batsman Ambati Rayudu has called on Rishabh Pant to not be stubborn and play as an opener in white-ball cricket as the wicketkeeper batsman continues to struggle for runs. With Lucknow Super Giants struggling to keep pace in the play-offs race, Pant’s struggles this season has come to the forefront following another disappointing outing at Dharamsala against Punjab Kings.
And Rayudu has said that one of the reasons behind his “very, very bad patch” could be down to Pant’s stubbornness. In 10 innings so far, Pant has made only 128 runs which includes one fifty and five single-digit scores. The costliest player in the at Rs 27 crore, this has been Pant’s poorest outing ever and Rayudu said time has come for the captain to change his approach.
“I think, at this point in time, I’m feeling very sorry for him because he’s not been changing his batting order or his approach,” Rayudu said on ESPNcricinfo’s Time Out. “I think he’s being pretty stubborn about how he wants to go about things. It’s not working in his favour at the moment. It happens in this sport, to be very honest, and he is going through a very, very bad patch. It can happen to anybody. I just hope that he takes this learning and improves on it and doesn’t become even more stubborn, but just accept the fact that he is struggling and start doing things a little differently and try and get better every day. That’s all you can do,” Rayudu said.
For a player who has been at home in Test cricket, the same cannot be said about white-ball formats. Though he was part of the T20 World Cup winning squad last year, he isn’t a guaranteed of a place in the shortest format. And Rayudu said Pant’s future in white-ball cricket could be as an opener.
“I think more than anything it’s just the clarity of what he wants to do because Pant ideally for me is an opener in white-ball cricket, because in the middle order he has not been great. I know he loves playing in the middle but he doesn’t have the batsmanship that is required or the skill set. Maybe he has the skillset, but not the mindset to execute that,” Rayudu added.
With 10 points from 11 matches, have a slim chance of making the play-offs as they have to win all their matches from here and hope other results go their way.
