“Even Dhoni missed catches, stumpings at the start of his career” - Rishabh Pant’s coach defends his ward
Rishabh Pant's childhood coach Tarak Sinha has stated that comparing Pant with MS Dhoni was unfair as it brings undue pressure on his ward. Sinha, the coach of many legendary cricketers in Delhi, has also added that even Dhoni had missed a lot of stumping and catching opportunities in his career.
The perils of filling the shoes of a big player are that you will have to bear with the constant comparison, every now and then and when it is a straight shootout of chances like it is the case with Dhoni and Pant, the pressure is even more. Rishabh Pant learnt that the hard way when the crowd chanted “Dhoni-Dhoni” after the former missed a stumping chance and the social media was abuzz with the trolls targeting the 21-year-old.
However, Pant’s childhood coach Tarak Sinha believes that comparing the youngster with a seasoned veteran is not the right way of looking at the things. “Such comparisons are cropping up because, like Dhoni, he (Pant) is also a wicketkeeper-batsman. But it’s unfair on him because it puts undue pressure for him to perform in a particular way, and be like Dhoni. He performs the best when his mind is free,” Sinha, who also coached Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan, among others, told Indian Express.
Sinha brought out the fact that when Dhoni came to international cricket, he was succeeded by some young wicket-keepers, and didn’t face the judgement that Pant is facing now. While adding the fact that Dhoni learnt the tricks of the trade with time, he was also missing stumping and catches during the initial parts of his career.
“There’s a difference between the Pant of today and Dhoni 14-years-ago when he was making his way into the Indian team. Back then, he did not come with the kind of baggage
“Which keeper in the world hasn’t missed a catch or a stumping? Even Dhoni missed catches and stumpings at the start of his career. The good thing is that the selectors persisted with him and did not drop him after one season. He improved with time to become one of the greats of the game,” Sinha explains.