IND vs WI | Rishabh Pant is all about confidence, claims Tarak Sinha

After a long time, Pant looked himself during his innings at Chepauk during the series opener. For a 22-year-old, Pant had a lot of pressure to tackle and for the past few months has failed at it while his potential, his keeping and his ability to save his wicket were being questioned. Just ahead of the West Indies challenge, Pant had visited his club, the Sonnet Club in Delhi to work on his batting with his coach Tarak Sinha and mentor Devender Sharma. The youngster went through four-hour net sessions, according to TOI, to “free him up” in terms of clean hitting. 

"He always says he feels (mentally) lighter when he comes to the club. He would complain that he couldn't get on with his shots. Everything seemed half-hearted. He would premeditate and plonk his front foot forward. He is all about confidence. Then he said he wanted to practice big shots. That freed him up and the bat swing was back," Sinha told TOI.

In order to get him to positivity ahead of the game, the talks of criticism at his club were off the table. They worked on which deliveries to hit and walk into the first ODI with a clear mind. 

"We decided that we won't talk about any criticism. He has to be mentally positive. Even MS Dhoni took time to become what he is now. But it's also necessary to not hide from the chinks in your game," Sinha shared.

"I told him people are blocking the on-side. His stance had opened up and he was dragging balls from outside the off-stump to the legside. He had to realize that he had to revive his off-side game," he added.