Pant trying too much, should control strokes: Sharma
India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant is playing too many horizontal shots and throwing his wickets away, according to his formative coach Devender Sharma, who has advised him to play more vertical and more on the off-side. Pant had a forgettable IPL for the second season in a row, following which he stepped down from captaincy of Lucknow Super Giants. He has also now become a one format player for India and recently lost his vice-captaincy in the Test team.
“He is trying too much and mostly playing horizontal shots. He is pushing & forcing himself too much. He should play more vertical shots that will give him more success.
“When I last talked to him, I had suggested him to play more vertical shots to get back into form. When you are not getting runs, you need to get back to basics,” Sharma told PTI on Thursday.
Pant will be next in action in the one-off Test against Afghanistan beginning in Mullanpur on June 6.
“I will tell him to play a little differently with a different approach, as there is a lot of difference in Test & T20 cricket. Last time when he played Test for India, he played a match-winning innings. I am sure he will do it again against Afghanistan,” said the Sonnet coach.
“He should show controlled aggression. He should concentrate more. The problem is that he has too many strokes (shots) backfoot, frontfoot. He must cut down on his innovative shots. He should play more on the off-side rather than on the on-side,” he observed. Sharma pointed out that it was just a matter of time that Pant returned to form. “Rishabh is a mentally strong cricketer. After the car accident, when he went to England, he scored centuries in both innings of a Test match. It’s a big thing for a cricketer.
“I have seen him since childhood and groomed him. Whatever matches he played after accident, he played well. IPL is a white ball game. He had lean patch there. It comes in every big cricketer’s career. Ups and downs come in every cricketer’s life,” he said.
