IND vs SL 2022 | Improvement in Rishabh Pant’s method has been most impressive for me, says Irfan Pathan

India are currently playing against Sri Lanka in the second Test in Bangalore and they are dominating the contest. Shreyas Iyer has scored fifty in both innings of the Test and also along with him Rishabh Pant has played counter-attacking knocks in the match. Pant scored 39 runs from 26 balls in the first innings and he scored 50 runs from 31 balls in the innings. 

Reflecting on Pant’s performance, former India cricketer Irfan Pathan has praised the young wicketkeeper for improvement in his method. 

"There is a method for sure, but what has impressed me the most is that there has been improvement in his method. Earlier he used to play shots only on the leg side but now plays shots on the off-side as well," he said on Star Sports.

"He now tries to find a way to stay on the pitch, doesn't only try to hit. The record-breaking knock we saw, it was not that he didn't play a defensive shot at all. The defense was also there."

Pant also became the Indian batter to score fastest Test half-century. The innings was studded with seven boundaries and two sixes. In the list of highest scoring Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Pant is ranked fourth with 1920 runs in 30 Tests. MS Dhoni tops the list with 4876 runs in 90 Tests. Pathan predicts that Pant will top the list.

"He is just a 24-year-old boy, and at such a young age, so much improvement has been seen in his cricket. I believe by the time he finishes his cricket career, there is still a long way to go, you will see him play 10 years of international cricket for sure, he will become India's highest run-scoring wicket keeper-batter in Tests, I have no doubt about that," he stated.

"He scored extremely valuable runs on a difficult pitch; there was a question mark on his consistency earlier for sure, but we are now regularly seeing a maturing young player. A gift is coming his way from Kapil Paaji."