Ashish Nehra - Rishabh Pant - sportstiger

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Former India fast bowler Ashish Nehra has expressed concerns about the form of the current Indian captain Rishabh Pant with respect to the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup. Nehra has talked about despite Pant being a crucial player in the team, can be replaced if he continues his bad run of form. 

In the recent five-game series against South Africa, Pant scored only 57 runs and was dismissed in the same manner as he was chasing the ball wide outside the off-stump on three out of the four matches. Nehra said, “Right from day one, we knew he (Pant) is going to be popular. He came the first day and then got dropped as he flopped initially. Then he came back and made a name for himself. I am very sure he will be disappointed with the kind of T20 numbers he had.”

There is no stamp that says Pant will surely play the T20 World Cup: Nehra

“The question this person asked was ‘can Team India play T20 cricket without Pant? Yes, Why Not. T20 World Cup is very far away. There is no stamp that says Pant will surely play the T20 World Cup. He can also get injured. But there are lot of games in between. We will have ten T20Is and then the Asia Cup," Nehra quoted.

Nehra further listed three names in Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson and Dinesh Karthik as replacement for Pant for the Indian squad. He said, “One good thing about Pant is that he plays all three formats. Others play only T20I, and if they don’t perform well in these limited chances, they will have some problems. You have Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson. You also have Dinesh Karthik.” 

I think when the match gets tight, he panics a bit: Jaffer

Similarly, former Indian opening batter Wasim Jaffer also called out Pant for his drawbacks as a captain. Jaffer talked about how the Delhi Capitals captain tends to panic in tense situations of a game. While speaking on ESPNCricinfo, he said, “Yes, we saw something similar in the IPL as well."

"I feel the more he captains, the better he'll get. But, yes, at this stage, I think when the match gets tight, he panics a bit. To some extent, yes. Being 2-0 down in a five-match series, if even one of the next three goes even marginally bad [it will be curtains down].”