Mumbai: Rishabh Pant should play with freedom as that is his natural game and try to bat with the responsibility to score more quickly in the ongoing IPL 2022, feels former India opener Virender Sehwag.
“The only thing Rishabh Pant needs to worry about is the approach with which he is playing. Wins and losses will keep happening,” Sehwag was quoted as saying to Cricbuzz.
“If he can change his attitude look at the number of balls he has played, he should have scored at least 60 in those number of deliveries. Had he scored those 20 runs more, then that would have cost Lucknow. I just feel that he should not change his style” Sehwag added.
Pant has scored decently, but has not played a dominating knock and yet to notch up big scores in IPL 2022. Pant scored 39 from 36 deliveries including three boundaries and two sixes, as Delhi set a target of 150 on Thursday at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
“Pant should not change his approach. He should play with freedom. The day he fires, he will win the match for his team, we all know that. But if he thinks that ‘I am the captain so I should play with more responsibility,’ then I don’t think he will be very successful this year in the IPL. Because it is not his style to play with responsibility or he thinks that he has to be there till the end” Sehwag warned.
“He should come and hit it if he gets a bad delivery or take a single, there shouldn’t be a third option in his mind. He should have clear-cut thinking that if it’s in my radar, I will hit it, otherwise, I’ll block it.”
When asked if he should look at Sehwag’s batting videos, the India legend smiled and replied that Pant has played in such a manner in the past for Delhi and for India across formats and that he can look back at his own videos to gain back his confidence.
“He should look at his own videos – look at Test or ODIs or in T20s – he has done that a lot and seeing those videos can help him gain confidence,” Sehwag concluded.
DC has so far won one and lost two matches in IPL 2022, with this Delhi dropped to the seventh position in the points table. Next, they will be up against Kolkata Knight Riders in their next match on Sunday.
