India erred by not picking Rishabh Pant for World Cup, asserts Ricky Ponting

Rishabh Pant had impressed everyone in his debut Indian Premier League season way back in 2016, he even went on to debut for India in the T20 format. Since then, the youngster has failed to find a permanent spot in India’s limited-overs set-up, but surprisingly, he is the team’s primary wicket-keeper in Tests now. The 21-year-old has also scored two centuries in the testing conditions of England and Australia. He was drafted into the squad for the final two ODIs against Australia in the recent series but failed to make a cut over Dinesh Karthik into the World Cup squad after two failures. However, he was named standby.

Ricky Ponting, the Delhi Capitals head coach has conveyed that Pant was disappointed to miss out.

"I know how disappointed he was to miss out on the World Cup. In my opinion as well, I think India made the wrong choice there. I think he would have been absolutely devastating in English conditions through those middle over against spinners,” he said, reported the official broadcasters.

The Australia great had earlier stated that Pant will go on to play three to four World Cups for India and he once again reiterated the same statement.

"Would have loved to see what he could have done in the World Cup. As I said at the time he was left out, he's got the potential to play three or four more World Cups if he keeps himself fit and healthy,” asserted the 44-year-old.

Pant was awarded the Man of the Match for his unbeaten 78 off 36 balls against Rajasthan Royals. The swashbuckling batsman had even smashed 78 off 27 in the side’s first match against Mumbai Indians but displayed inconsistency after that. Ponting pointed out towards the two innings claiming that the southpaw is extremely dangerous on flat pitches.

"Someone as explosive as Rishabh likes a bit more pace on the ball. And we saw that tonight. Once he gets those sort of wickets he's lethal. He got a wicket like that in Mumbai and he hit 70-odd off 20-odd balls,” explained the former World Cup-winning captain.

The Delhi based franchise are now placed at the top of the table and they would like to hold on to that position after a gap of seven years. Barring the experienced Shikhar Dhawan, the trio of skipper Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw and Pant who form the crux of the batting line-up are very young and all have contributed in different matches. The coach heaped praise on the trio but also remarked that they are learning on the job.

"There are some awesome young talents. The average age of group is about 25. Guys like Prithvi and Pant and to an extent Shreyas, they are just kids and to a certain degree, they are learning a bit about the game and bit of themselves,” he affirmed.

"Rishabh himself, he is on a different planet. He is an ultra-talented guy. He is a real competitor and a winner. He loves these conditions. Some really good signs there going forward in the tournament,” Ponting concluded.