cricket

Updated: Nov 23, 2018 12:41 IST

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly has asked young wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant to be more astute while playing his strokes. Pant, who looked in the first T20I, was dismissed trying to reverse scoop a full ball over point and cover. His dismissal impeded India’s chase and Ganguly wants him to learn from the mistakes.

“Rishabh Pant could’ve won the match for India with Dinesh Karthik. The way he was batting with Karthik and took the match close for India, the shot didn’t have any value,” Ganguly told IndiaTV.

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“He is a young player and somebody needs to tell him that when he has the ability and power to hit straight, he doesn’t need to play these kind of shots. He is not in bad form. He just has to change his shot selection. It is not a difficult thing to do. I am not concerned with his form,” he added.

Pant was involved in a crucial partnership with Dinesh Karthik, which propelled India’s chase, but his dismissal put the brakes on the scoring as India eventually fell short by 4 runs.

Captain Virat Kohli conceded after the match that Pant’s dismissal was the turning point in the chase.

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“It was a close game, was a see-saw battle. Started well with the bat, fumbled in the middle overs, in the end, we thought we’ll win with Pant and Karthik but it changed again with Pant’s dismissal,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation.