Australia batting great and former India head coach says Rishabh Pant is “reinventing the game as a batsman” after the wicketkeeper-batter smacked centuries in each innings of the first Test against England at Leeds.
Pant hit 134 (off 178 balls, 12 fours and six sixes) and 118 (off 140 balls, 15 fours and three sixes) in the opening Test which India lost by five wickets on Tuesday which helped him reset a few batting records as well.
Chappell said India’s Test vice-captain Pant has been playing strokes which are not even in the “MCC playing manual”.
“When I first saw him, he reminded me of Adam Gilchrist...a different sort of player, of course, but...the difference it can make to a team when a wicketkeeper can bat at that level and to score runs quickly,” Chappell said during a promotional event organised by str8bat here on Wednesday.
“The beauty is Rishabh gets runs at a very fast rate which gives you time to win cricket matches. His was a phenomenal performance. Some of the shots he played weren’t in the MCC playing manual.” “He is really reinventing the game as a batsman. With modern technology, the bats are very different and you can play shots which weren’t possible with the old bats. He's exciting to watch,” Chappell added.
The former Australia captain said one can never know what Pant can come up with on the cricket field.
“You never quite know what to expect from him from the first ball. At any stage he is likely to jump down the wicket to the fast bowlers or play the falling ramp shot,” he said.
“You never quite know what to expect. It keeps the opposition on their toes. He is a match winner (and he) very nearly made the difference in that game,” Chappell added.
Chappell reckoned Shubman Gill had a good start as the Indian Test captain even though the result in the opening Test of the five-match series did not go his way.
“It was a terrific Test match. Sadly, India didn’t finish on the correct side of the ledger. There were a lot of good things for them,” Chappell said.
“Shubman Gill had a great start as a captain and as a player even if they did not get the result. Conditions were probably better on the last day than they were at any other stage of the Test match." “Both Gill and the Indian think tank would have learned a lot on what to take forward. Gill will only get better and better. I think his start was pretty good. Had the team taken more catches and the tail wagged a bit, the results could have been very different,” he continued.
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