Rishabh Pant, who finally broke the run of low scores as he notched up his first ODI fifty in the 1st ODI against West Indies in Chennai on Sunday, needs to carry on and get big hundreds to justify his selection in the side according to former Team India opener Gautam Gambhir.
The 21-year old has been unable to replicate his IPL and domestic form on the big stage of late but silenced critics with an important and timely knock of 71 that helped India to a target of close to 290 in the first game.
However, Gambhir, Pant’s statemate, feels that he will need to build on the knock and string inconsistent performances to repay the faith that has been shown in him by Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri. Pant not only needs to convert his fifties into hundreds but also has to spend enough time on the wicket to gain back confidence.
“He (Pant) needs to be consistent, he is playing in all three formats. He is not playing Test cricket but he is part of the squad which shows the faith from the team management – but he still needs to get more consistent. He needs to convert the 60-70s into 100 as well, that’s what MS Dhoni used to do a lot as well. Even if he (Pant) would not get those big 100s, he should be their righty till the end,” Gautam Gambhir said at Nerolac Cricket Live show exclusively on Star Sports
The cricketer-turned minister also added that Pant needs to get a hundred in international cricket to start relishing the big stage.
“He has scored 3-4 half-centuries but he hasn’t converted any of them into a 100. He needs to get one 100, because once you get that one international 100, you start enjoying the pace of that and then they keep coming, till the time you don’t get one international 100 you will never know how it feels like to get that for your country,” Gambhir added.
