On Sunday, November 6, India head coach Rahul Dravid remarked that the team’s leadership group has complete trust in all 15 players who are part of India’s squad. Dravid gave Pant his support after the wicketkeeper-batsman earned his first big opportunity in the T20 World Cup 2022 in the last Super 12 match against Zimbabwe in Melbourne.
With a chance to advance to the knockout rounds, Pant could only muster three runs off of five deliveries in the middle overs against Zimbabwe. The wicketkeeper-batsman attempted to clear the mid-wicket boundary off left-arm spinner Sean Williams, but Ryan Burl took a spectacular catch in the deep.
In the aftermath of Pant’s dismissal against Zimbabwe, head coach Rahul Dravid came to his defence, claiming that he wasn’t disturbed by it and that Pant had the appropriate approach against a left-arm spinner. Dravid said that despite Pant sitting out the first four games of the T20 World Cup in Australia, the squad never lost trust in him.
In the first four Super 12 matches, India opted to use Dinesh Karthik as their wicketkeeper rather than Rishabh Pant, a strategy that was foreshadowed during their Asia Cup campaign, in which the more experienced wicketkeeper-batter was given the majority of opportunities. Pant, who had been on the bench, was called into action for India’s XI against Zimbabwe after captain Rohit Sharma said that the squad intended to give the rookie wicketkeeper a chance before the semi-finals.
With a batting average below 25, Pant has failed to deliver in the Twenty20 International format. He has played in 63 T20Is. Earlier this year, Pant captained India in a home series against South Africa, but the star batter has since fallen out of favor because of Dinesh Karthik’s surprising recall to the senior national squad after a fantastic IPL 2022 season.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s not that we ever lost confidence in Rishabh. We have got confidence in all the 15 players in the squad. It’s only 11 guys who can play. It depends on the combination that you have to play,” Dravid said.
