Rishabh Pant needs to stay away from opinions and focus on his game, advices Parthiv Patel

Rishabh Pant, of late, has received severe criticism because of his rash shot selection and poor keeping technique and while in the recently-concluded limited-overs series against West Indies he played a couple of decent knocks, he was still very ordinary behind the wickets. His lack of consistency is not doing justice to the amount of chances and backing that he is getting from the selectors as well as the team management and this has evidently left a lot of fans frustrated.

However, Parthiv Patel feels that should Pant be able to ignore the criticism and focus on his game, he will emerge as a better player.

"Today's youngsters have got that advantage of playing with the big players and sharing the dressing room with them. But when you are struggling for form, you get opinions from all quarters. It's about keeping yourself away from opinions and focus on your game," Patel told TOI.

"In the T20 series (against WI) he did well. You see he's having a fun time at the ground as well. He can become a good player when he comes out of such pressure situations," he added.

Pant has scored Test hundreds in England and Australia and Patel believes that this is no ordinary feat to achieve. He is of the opinion that if Pant is allowed to play his natural game with complete freedom and under no pressure, he can move to the next level and become a consistent performer for India.

 "Obviously when you play for India, you have something in you. He made his Test debut in a tough place like England where the ball swings a lot. He's a young player. It's about gaining confidence. It can change in a matter of one-two innings," Patel asserted.

"It's just because he's doing well there's so much talk about him. He has done well in the last series. He has got the talent and the team is providing him that confidence to do much better," he concluded.