Rishabh Pant has every shot in the book – Rashid Khan

Afghanistan’s prodigy leg-spinner Rashid Khan feels Rishabh Pant has every shot in the book and he is one of the most difficult batsmen to bowl to. Pant is well known for his aggressive batting style and Khan recalled one of the Under-19 matches whereas the Delhi batsman hit three consecutive sixes against his team.

It was a tri-series Under-19 match between India and Afghanistan at Jadavpur University in Kolkata in 2015 when Rishabh Pant scored a hat-trick of sixes. However, on the fourth ball, he mistimed his shot but he was dropped by the fielder, leaving the bowler frustrated.

“He (Rishabh) hit three sixes in a row and in the fourth ball he mis-timed but only to be dropped at short midwicket. Our bowler looked helpless and put his hands on his head, yelling in Pashto, now what do I do to get him out?”, Khan recalled the incident in an Instagram chat with Indian leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.

“He has every shot in the book and is one batsman who is very tough to bowl to. I remember bowling to him at a ground in Kolkata in the U-19 Tri Series”, Rashid said.

Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant has had great success while playing in the IPL. Pant is known to hit the ground running and the T20 format is his forte. The left-hander is known to take the attack to the opposition and he can score his runs in a jiffy.

Pant has also dominated Rashid Khan, who is one of the best spinners in the IPL. The southpaw has scored 54 runs off 37 balls against Rashid whereas the Sunrisers Hyderabad spinner has dismissed Pant on one occasion. The left-hander had also scored his highest IPL score of 128 off just 63 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2018 edition.

Rishabh Pant has a blistering strike rate of 162.7 in the IPL and he has impressed with his pyrotechnics. The left-hander has scored 1736 runs in 54 IPL matches at an impressive average of 36.17. However, Pant is yet to grab his chances at the International circuit in the white-ball version.

Pant has scored Test centuries in England and Australia but he has veered off the track since then. The Delhi player is also replaced by KL Rahul in the limited-overs version and he would like to make a solid comeback. Pant will definitely improve with experience and there is no doubt that he has got the talent and the skills needed to succeed at the top level.