Rahul Dravid breaks silence on Rishabh Pant's prolonged poor form in T20Is

Rahul Dravid and Rishabh Pant (Source: Twitter)

Team India took on Zimbabwe on November 7, Sunday, in their last game of the group stages of the 20-20 World Cup 2022. It was a good game for the Men in Blue as they trumped Zimbabwe by 71 runs. They scored 186-5 batting first and they defended the score in 17.2 overs.

Among the team, one of them who did not have a good outing was Rishabh Pant as the wicketkeeper batter got out trying to play the slog sweep to Sean Williams due to a superb fielding effort from Ryan Burl. This was Pant’s first outing in the 20-20 World Cup 2022, and he was fully backed by coach Rahul Dravid.

"Yeah, I mean, it’s not that we ever lost confidence in Rishabh. We have got confidence in all the 15 players in the squad. It’s only 11 guys who can play. It depends on the combination that you have to play," Dravid said speaking in the post-match press conference.

T20I has been Rishabh Pant's nemesis, where he has not been up to the mark, he only has scored less than 1000 T20I runs to his credit in 63 games. His place has been taken by Dinesh Karthik in the middle order due to his finishing capabilities.

We don't judge Pant based on one game - Rahul Dravid

"Rishabh has been batting a lot in the nets, do a lot of wicketkeeping practice, he is keeping himself ready," he added. Pant fell for just 3, Dravid however backed Pant to the hilt saying: "It didn’t kind of work out today after we gave him an opportunity. I am absolutely not bothered at all. I think he took the right option. His role was to take on the left-arm spinner, which was there, sometimes, it comes off and sometimes it doesn’t," Dravid said.

"We don’t judge players based on one game and whether we play a player or not is not based on one game. It’s based on match-ups and what are the skills that we need. A lot of things go into these kinds of decisions," he added.

India finished strongly by putting a big total on the board thanks to 51 off 35 balls from KL Rahul and 61 off 25 balls from Suryakumar Yadav. The Men in Blue will take on England in the semi-finals of the 20-20 World Cup 2022 on July 10.