Rishabh Pant isn't fit to play the upcoming World Cup but former Australian ace Adam Gilchrist is still fascinated by the kind of impact that the burly keeper-batter has had in his six years with the Indian team.
Pant, who met with a horrific car accident last December, is currently doing his rehabilitation programme at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru and is expected to make a comeback sometime next year.
In his absence, KL Rahul will keep wickets for India and Ishan Kishan has a good chance of playing as a specialist middle-order batter.
"I think Rishabh has inspired a lot of wicket-keeper batters around the world to play that way (he does). It is fascinating for such a young man to have such an impact that Rishabh has had and others are responding and playing in that positive manner," Gilchrist said.
Gilchrist was impressed how Kishan has shaped up despite knowing that Rahul will be the first keeper.
"They (India) are well stocked. They have got a couple of options there, obviously when KL was out with his injury, Ishan Kishan took his opportunity and played really well and now they find themselves in the team together so that's a wonderful case of taking an opportunity," said the man who won three World Cups for Australia.
What Gilchrist found laudable was Kishan's ability to force the selectors to keep him in the mix with consistent performances.
"Being positive and then and forcing the selectors into keeping you in the team so it seems like KL is gonna be the one who is going to continue with the gloves but it does not seem to hinder Ishan Kishan's batting, he seems to be playing really well, carefree, attacking and dangerous," he explained.
The man, who played nearly 400 international games across three formats, with 15,000 plus runs and over 900 dismissals (catches and stumpings), however had straight forward choices as far as four potential semi-finalists were concerned.
"I think India and Pakistan could feature in the semi-finals, Australia and England are another two teams," opined Gilchrist.