IPL 2019 | Rishabh Pant could be the next big thing for India, says Yuvraj Singh

When Colin Ingram was caught by Hardik Pandya on the last ball of the 13th over, thereby breaking the crucial partnership of the Kiwi with Shikhar Dhawan, Delhi Capitals looked heading for a competitive target at the best. The likes of Shreyas Iyer and Prithvi Shaw were already gone with Dhawan looking more cautious than adventurous.

Pant started off in the most nervous way possible as his casual missed shot saw Pandya staring at the batsman in an attempt to intimidate him. And it worked to a large extent as Pant went on to miss the next three balls with the Capitals visibly choking at Mumbai’s star bowling line-up. Fast forward to the 20th over and Pant and Rahul Tewatia were seen returning to the dugout after posting a target of 214 runs.

After Dhawan was dismissed in the 16th over, Pant had to take over and he blasted a 27-ball-78 to end things that included seven boundaries and seven sixes sparing no bowler of Mumbai. And veteran Yuvraj Singh, who was looking at the southpaw creating fireworks all over the ground, has stated that it would be important for India to groom the player.

“I can’t really say about (World Cup) selection but Rishabh was outstanding today.He (Pant) had an outstanding season last year as well. He is playing well in Test matches as well. To score two hundreds overseas at such an age (21 years) shows his character,” said Yuvraj at the post match media conference, reported HT.

“It is important that we groom him well and hopefully he is the next big thing for us,” said Yuvraj, who was member of the 2011 World Cup winning Indian team,” added Singh.

Mumbai Indians ended the chase 37 runs short with the 37-year-old ending the evening as the highest scorer for the hosts making 53 runs off 35 balls. Though Krunal Pandya had a short cameo in the end, it wasn’t enough and Singh felt that the lack of partnerships brought the end for Mumbai on Sunday.

“Losing Rohit (Sharma) early (was one of the reasons). (Quinton) de Kock was going well but (we) lost his wicket. (Kieron) Pollard came and quickly lost his wicket. We really couldn’t get partnerships going. The wicket was more of 180-190 wicket, 215 (213) was quite a match-winning score,” said Yuvraj.