Sport
Attacking wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant will lead India in the second and deciding Test against South Africa in Guwahati, after the hosts faced a 30-run defeat in the opening Test at Eden Gardens.
Regular India skipper Shubman Gill, who has been ruled out of the series due to a neck injury, was retired hurt in the first innings in Kolkata and did not come out to bat in the second innings.
Currently leading 1-0, South Africa can climb to second place on the World Test Championship points table – right behind Australia – if they wrap up the series 2-0. However, if India win the final Test and level the series 1-1, they will move up to third place.
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With the hosts struggling to chase modest totals and the playing XI still unsettled due to injuries and inexperience, stand-in captain Pant faces a tough challenge to square the series – a result that could be crucial to India’s 2027 World Test Championship campaign.
Sport Ricky Ponting Backs Rishabh Pant To Do Well In Guwahati Test
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting, who has worked closely with Rishabh Pant in the Indian Premier League (IPL), feels the keeper-batter’s experience will come into play in his role as a skipper in the Guwahati Test.
“It’s never easy to come in and fill in for someone as a stopgap captain, especially when you’ve just lost a Test match a few days before. Rishabh is a reasonably experienced Test match player now though as well. I think being a wicket keeper probably helps to see the way that the game is evolving and what’s happening in the game,” Ponting said in the latest edition of the ICC Review.
“He has done at IPL level now for the last few years, obviously done it in Delhi (Capitals) before that. I think he’ll handle it fine,” he added.
Notably, Pant and Ponting shared a captain-coach relationship in the Delhi Capitals franchise before the former moved on to Lucknow Super Giants and the latter to Punjab Kings.
Although Pant has plenty of experience captaining in white-ball cricket, this will be the first time the 28-year-old will be donning the captain’s hat for the Test side.
“It will be interesting to see how he plays as captain if he changes his style of play as captain, as a batter anyway. I think he’ll handle the occasion fine. I think the one thing that’s probably not spoken about enough with these so-called younger Indian players now is that when they take the step up to playing for India in a Test match or even leading their team, because they get that great experience from the IPL,” Ponting observed.
“The IPL is probably almost as big as a Test match for a lot of these guys because of the crowds and the scrutiny that comes in an IPL game.
I think the modern players are a bit more ready for that and a bit for those leadership roles and the enormity of the situation than they might have been 15 years ago. So I think Rishabh will handle it fine,” he added.
Besides not having Gill at the helm, India will also be without their premium number four batter, who was the highest run-getter in the recent England Test series.
The second Test between India and South Africa begins on November 22 at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati.
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