WTC Final: A miracle would have been more possible with Rishabh Pant around – Sanjay Manjrekar

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar believes a miracle would have been more possible with Rishabh Pant around. Pant has been ruled out for an indefinite time after his horrific car accident earlier in the year.

Meanwhile, Pant has played some miraculous knocks against Australia in Test cricket. The left-hander had scored a brilliant unbeaten knock of 89 runs in the second innings at the Gabba on the 2021 tour.

Pant has a fantastic record against Australia, scoring 624 runs in seven Test matches at an average of 62.40, including one century. The left-hander has turned the match on its head with his blistering batting on numerous occasions in Test matches and his services have been deeply missed by India in the WTC Final against Australia.

“A miracle would have been more possible with Rishabh Pant around. If India win, it is a miracle. But if Rishabh Pant was around, it would have seemed more likely,” Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo.

Meanwhile, Australia posted a huge score of 469 runs after Rohit Sharma decided to bowl first and Manjrekar feels Indian bowlers could have bowled better. The analyst added Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli will hold the key for the Indian team on the final day of the WTC summit clash. Kohli is batting unbeaten on 44 whereas Rahane is on 20.

“After watching Australia’s tactics in the second innings, you would think if India would have done a little better with the ball after electing to bowl first, things would have been different. Now you watch Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane tomorrow. Ajinkya Rahane has become dogmatic, just sort of one thought player now. He used to be skittish large part of his early career before he was dropped,” Manjrekar continued.

“But now very calm and very committed to one way of playing, a bit like Pujara, but with more shots. And Virat Kohli will be Virat Kohli. This is the thing to like about India, they will keep fighting back. But they conceded just too much of an advantage in the first couple of days to Australia,” he added.

On the other hand, former Australian wicket-keeper bat Brad Haddin admitted he will never write off the current Indian team as they are still alive in the WTC Final.

“I will never write this Indian team off because over recent times, they have done some extraordinary things against Australia. We are happy with where we are at, but it is still game on tomorrow.”

India needs another 280 runs to pull off the miraculous win whereas Australia requires seven wickets.