Rishabh Pant has played in 13 Tests, 16 ODIS and 28 T20Is for India. (File)Parthiv Patel, who announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on Wednesday, believes that Rishabh Pant needs to ‘convert talent into performance’ to kickstart his international career again.
The 23-year-old wicketkeeper, who was once considered to be the successor of MS Dhoni, had an impressive start to his Team India career after smashing centuries in England and Australia.
But due to a lack of consistency, Pant was dropped from India’s limited-overs squad against Australia and looks set to be the second choice wicketkeeper in the upcoming Test series also.
“Talk about Rishabh Pant, lockdown happened, he put on a little weight. There is no question about his talent. Every time I meet him, I tell him that people are talking about you because you have a lot of talent,” Patel told Sports Tak.
“Now how do you convert that talent into performance, it is in your hands, it is not in anyone else’s hands. You have to convert talent into runs and good wicket keeping. I am sure he has understood that.”
Patel believes that every player should believe in themselves during their playing career.
“My experience says that you are never out of the Indian team’s fray. It is very important for the player to have a belief in himself. Pant will have to show in domestic cricket, by scoring runs and keeping wickets in every match. You have to show that I am ready for international cricket,” he said.
Aakash Chopra, the former India opener, also feels that Pant has only himself to blame.
“Rishabh Pant needed to understand this whenever he had the opportunity, he had to understand that the way he was getting out and whether he was able to finish the match or not. He has not made full use of the chances that he got and he only has himself to blame at this point in time,” Aakash Chopra told Cricbuzz.