Rishabh Pant will be a match winner in World Cup, reckons Ashish Nehra

Former India pacer Ashish Nehra is adamant that youngster Rishabh Pant should be on the plane when India travel to England for the 2019 ICC ODI World Cup which will be held later this year. Nehra is confident that the left-handed batsman cum wicket-keeper will be a valuable addition to Virat Kohli’s squad when they go up against the best in the world.

"No disrespect, this team has three clear match-winners and they are Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah. For me, the fourth one is going to be Rishabh Pant. Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav and Dinesh Karthik are all fantastic players but they are all in the same mould. You need X-factor which this boy possesses," added Nehra.

The Delhi Capitals player recently featured in the 2-1 T20I series loss to New Zealand and had impressed in the Test series win against Australia in December. Nehra stressed on the importance of having a player who can bat left-handed to give a perfect left-right combination in the batting line-up for India.

"In a team, there will always be contributors but at a big event like the World Cup, you need players with X-factor. Rishabh Pant is not a mere contributor but a pure match-winner who should be picked for the World Cup. If you look at India's batting line up, save Shikhar , there aren't any left-handers in the top seven. You need variety with a left-right combination, where Rishabh perfectly fits.

"Secondly, Rishabh can bat at any position between Nos 1 to 7 and so Virat and the team management can use him as a floater," said Nehra, who also played the 2003 World Cup final in South Africa. If it comes to effortlessly hitting sixes, Rishabh comes second only to Rohit Sharma with his big-hitting ability. India will need that in abundance during the World Cup," Nehra told IndiaToday in a recent interview.