Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant at five or six is going to be a explosive combination, opines Sunil Gavaskar

06/01/2022

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Sunil Gavaskar has stated that Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant batting in the lower order against South Africa in upcoming T20Is might create an explosive combination. He further stated that the duo can add a lot of runs in the phase between 14th to 20th over and even 100-120 runs can be expected.

Gujarat Titans won IPL 2022 under the leadership of Hardik Pandya and now the Indian players will be gearing up for the upcoming T20I series against South Africa. The series will mark the return of Hardik to the national side as he was super in the IPL. He scored 487 runs at 44.27 in for GT and played a vital role in their title win. He also has the ability to play attacking cricket and that might be his role in the Indian team for the upcoming series.

Rishabh Pant is the first-choice wicketkeeper for India in the series. He scored 340 runs at a healthy strike rate of 151.79 in the IPL 2022. Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar said that Hardik and Pant will make up an explosive combination while batting at 5 or 6 and he is looking forward to it.

"I think he'll probably be slotted at five or six. Just imagine, if India has a Hardik Pandya and a Rishabh Pant at five or six. They can probably swap around a little bit -- that is going to be some explosive combination from the 14th to the 20th over. In six overs, you can probably expect even may be 100-120 runs. They are capable of doing that. So, that's going to be an exciting aspect. That's something I'm really looking forward to -- Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya batting at five or six," Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

India will play a five-match T20I series against South Africa starting from June 9.