Former India cricketer Mohammad Kaif cited Rishabh Pant’s example to Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, stressing on the importance of playing domestic. Kaif’s comment came in the wake of India’s humiliating 0-3 defeat at the hands of New Zealand in the recent Test series at home, where both Kohli and Rohit failed miserably.
While Kohli accumulated a total of 93 runs in six innings, Rohit managed just two runs more than his fellow teammate. With the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) starting later this month in Australia, Kohli-Rohit’s form has been a serious headache for the Indian management.
Ever since Gautam Gambhir came in as India’s head coach, playing in domestic cricket for all the contracted players has been made mandatory considering the long calendar in Tests. In fact, when all the centrally-contracted players played in the Duleep Trophy prior to the Bangladesh Test series at home, the absence of Rohit and Kohli raised a few eyebrows.
Kaif, who is now an analyst and commentator post retirement, stressed how Pant benefited by playing a practice match during India’s famous tour of Australia in 2020-21. The southpaw wasn’t included in the white-ball Indian teams for the tour and was only named in the Test squad.
He was India’s second-choice wicketkeeper after Wriddhiman Saha. However, India’s 36 all out in Adelaide in the first Test made way for Pant to be picked from the second Test onwards. In fact, it was Pant’s counter-attacking 89 in Brisbane that helped India retain the BGT.
“Let me remind you of Rishabh Pant here. He ended up scoring the winning run in Gabba, but he was neither part of the ODI nor the T20I squad in that tour,” Kaif continued in a video on his social media handles. “He only went for the Test series, where Wriddhiman Saha played ahead of him.
“But India incurred that '36 all out' and we lost the match, Pant was included. But remember, Pant had played a practice match in that tour, in a Pink Ball match supposedly, and scored a century, after which he was included in the XI so he emerged as a whole different player then,” added Kaif, who was one of the gun fielders in the world during his time.
Meanwhile, according to reports, the Indian management has cancelled the intra-squad three-day match against India ‘A’ scheduled for November 15-17 at the WACA. The match was cancelled as Gambhir wants his batters to spend more time at the nets which they wouldn't have got in the intra-squad game.
