New Delhi, Nov 21 Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has backed wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant to be fine in handling the captaincy role for India in the upcoming second Test against South Africa, saying his vast experience will serve him well to lead the hosts in the absence of Shubman Gill.
Pant will become India’s 38th Test captain when the Guwahati Test begins at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium on Saturday, after regular skipper Gill was ruled out due to a neck injury sustained in the first game at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. A series-levelling win in Guwahati will also help India to climb to third place in the World Test Championship standings.
“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. 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,” said Ponting on the ICC Review show.
Pant and Ponting previously shared a captain‑coach dynamic at Delhi Capitals before the former moved to Lucknow Super Giants, while the latter shifted to Punjab Kings. Pant brings considerable leadership experience from white‑ball cricket, as well as captaining India in the T20I series against South Africa in June 2022.
Though Pant will captain India in red-ball cricket for the first time, he will bank on his experience of leading Delhi in Ranji Trophy and more recently, of leading India A in the two-game series against South Africa A at the BCCI CoE ground in Bengaluru. Ponting is keen to see how Pant would modify his style of play in Guwahati due to the leadership duties.
“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.”
“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.
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