India should use Rishabh Pant as floater in T20 World Cup – Ricky Ponting

Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting reckons India should use Rishabh Pant as a floater in the upcoming T20 World Cup. Pant has the skills to hit the ground running and he has shown that he can turn the match on its head with his blistering batting.

The left-hander has mostly batted at number four and five in T20Is for India. In the first T20I against South Africa, Pant scored a quickfire knock of 29 runs off just 16 balls while batting at number four.

It would be fair to say that Pant hasn’t quite grabbed his opportunity as a batter in the shortest format as he has done so in the Test format. However, Pant has the skills to hit the big shots from the get-go and India can certainly make the most of it by promoting him up the order.

Meanwhile, former Indian captain Virat Kohli mostly bats at one down for the Indian team in T20I cricket whereas skipper Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul are expected to open the innings in the T20 World Cup. Ergo, it will be interesting to note India’s batting line-up in the T20I showpiece.

“He [Pant] is a wonderful player. He is just an outstanding young man, who has got the world at his feet. And he’ll be exceptionally dangerous for India, especially on the wickets we’ll provide in Australia…. good flat, fast, bouncy wickets. He’ll be one of the players to watch out [for] in the tournament [T20 World Cup] for sure,” Ponting said on ICC Review.

Ponting feels India should promote Pant in the batting order if the team gets off to a good start.

“I reckon having him as a floater. I’ll probably have him listed at (No.) 5 in the [Indian] batting line-up. “But in certain situations, where it gets to a stage where there are seven-eight overs to go and they are one-two down, then I will look at sending him in and giving as much time as I possibly can. He is that dynamic and that explosive and that is certainly the way I would look at trying to use him,” Ponting said.

When Pant was asked if India will try a floating batting line-up on the eve of the first T20I, he said they will play according to the match situations.

“I think it depends. We will see the conditions,” he had said. “If we feel like we need a floating batting line-up, we will take it forward. I don’t think in these kinds of conditions we want a floating batting line-up. The kind of batting line-up we have, leftie-rightie is not a big deal for us because we play spinners day in and day out. So we will try not to do a lot but at the same time, if we need to, we will.”

Pant didn’t have the best of IPL 2022 as he could only manage 340 runs in 14 matches at an average of 30.91. The southpaw is currently leading India in the T20I series against South Africa.