‘When his shots come off, people call him a match-winner’- Virat Kohli’s childhood coach backs Rishabh Pant amidst criticism

Virat Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma feels that Rishabh Pant has been put under a lot of pressure, of late, by wanting him to play more responsibly. In an interaction with India News, Sharma said that a player like Rishabh Pant, who is known for his destructive stroke play, should be backed to play fearlessly.

“When Rishabh Pant’s shots come off, people call him a match-winner. But when he is caught a couple of feet inside the boundary, people call him irresponsible. I feel when you have such a stroke player, you should take the chance and let him play his natural game. There’s no point in forcing him to play responsibly. I just hope he takes more calculative risks because he is a senior player in the team now.”

Meanwhile, India took a 1-0 lead in the two-match Test series on Sunday after registering a 188-run win over the hosts in the first match. Cheteshwar Pujara starred with the bat as he scored 192 runs in 2 innings and brought up his 19th Test century.

Rajkumar Sharma heaped massive praise on Pujara for his selfless knock in the Test match. Here’s what he had to say about India’s Test veteran:

“Pujara’s role has always been to hold one end and let the other batters bat around him. However, he showed that when the team needed quick runs, he was ready to take on the opposition bowlers. This shows that he is a true team man and this is a sign of a great team that different players are ready to adapt according to the situation.”

Riding on a stellar knock of 90 runs in 203 deliveries, India notched a massive score of 404 runs on the board in the first innings. Shreyas Iyer played an equally brilliant knock of 86 runs in 192 balls.
In their second innings, Cheteshwar Pujara went on to notch his 19th Test hundred, helping India win the Test match by 188 runs.