Gautam Gambhir era in Indian cricket seems to be well and truly underway, with the new Indian coach giving a clear indication in the recently concluded Sri Lanka series that he wants his batsmen to try their hand with the ball. In that series, perhaps for the first time in a long while, we saw many top-order players such as T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav, openers Rinku Singh, Shubman Gill, Riyan Parag and ODI skipper Rohit Sharma bowling at crucial junctures.
In a shocking development during a recent Delhi Premier League match, wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant was seen rolling up his sleeves and adopting the avatar of a spinner, perhaps to send a message to the team management that he has more to offer than being a wicketkeeper-batsman. Notably, Pant was dropped in favour of KL Rahul in the recent ODI series against Sri Lanka and only got a chance to bat in the final match of the series.
Pant’s all-around play during DPL:
Rishabh Pant led Purani Dilli-6 as they took on South Delhi Superstars in a Delhi Premier League match at the Arun Jaitley International Stadium on Saturday. During the innings, Pant (35 off 32 balls) played a crucial knock to set the tone for his side and later Lalit Yadav and Vansh Bedi played some crucial knocks to take the score to 197/3 in 20 overs.
However, South Delhi Supertarz were aggressive right from the start and managed to keep the momentum in their favour throughout the match. The game was so much in Supertarz’s favour that when Rishabh Pant finally came to bat in the last over of the match, they needed just 1 run from 6 deliveries. Pant bowled his right hand spin bowling for the 1 delivery and the single off that ball ensured that South Delhi would end the match in their favour.r.
