“Not The Best…”: MS Dhoni vs Rishabh Pant Debate Gets A New “Hero Factor” Angle

Indian cricket staff wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant made an excellent return to Test cricket as he slammed a surprising century to information his aspect to a cushty win over Bangladesh within the first Test match in Chennai. Pant ‘s efficiency earned him quite a lot of reward from each consultants in addition to followers and it additionally sparked a comparability with MS Dhoni within the race for the ‘best wicket-keeper batter’ for India. Former New Zealand batter Ian Smith, nonetheless, believes that Pant has an extended method to go earlier than he can thought of in the identical bracket as Dhoni. He added that Pant just isn’t the most effective wicket-keeper for the time being and in the case of ‘hero issue’, it would troublesome for him to get previous Dhoni.

“I like Pant as a cricketer. It’s an extremely important role and he’s got massive shoes to fill because they’ve had a revolving door since Dhoni to be perfectly honest. You talk about hero factor, it’s pretty hard to go past MS. But once you reach a certain stage in Indian cricket and you start to perform at the international level, your life changes dramatically. You become a superstar beyond anything most sporting people would be akin to,” he stated on talkSPORT cricket.

Smith was all reward for Pant as he stated that he likes the teenager’s angle and charges him fairly extremely.

“Rishabh Pant… I like him because he’s just got that attitude. He’s not going to run away from a fight. If you ask him to open, he’ll open. If you ask him to bat at 5, he’ll do it. He is probably not the best gloveman the world has ever seen but he is working on it, getting better at it. And that’s efficient because you spend so much of your day standing close to the stumps. He is a given for me. He is Gilchrist-like in that regard. I rate him very highly,” stated Smith.