“He is going to be a leader in the future” - R Sridhar confident of Rishabh Pant's success as captain

Former India fielding coach R Sridhar has asserted that Rishabh Pant is a smart cricketer and possesses the attributes to become a good captain with experience.

The young keeper-batter has led the Delhi Capitals (DC) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the last two seasons. He even captained the Indian T20I team during the series against South Africa at home after KL Rahul was ruled out due to injury.

While Pant’s leadership has produced mixed results, Sridhar is confident that the youngster will learn and get better. Giving the example of MS Dhoni, he told Cricket.com:

“I think no one is born with all the skills. Any skill that any person possesses is born out of the situation that he has been in and learned. MS, he grew up playing with adults and elderly kids. That is where he picked up all his cricketing acumen.

"Rishabh has grown up in a similar kind of environment. He grew up playing with big achievers. That is where he picks his cricket smartness from.”

Stating that he already sees growth in Pant as a leader in the IPL, Sridhar added:

“He is going to be a leader in the future. Once he starts separating his leadership from his batsmanship, then that is entertainment confirmed.”

Pant did not have a great time with the bat during the two captaincy stints mentioned above. He failed to register a single half-century in IPL 2022. In the home series against the Proteas, he totaled 58 runs in five matches at a strike rate of 105.45.

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“Just normal” - Sridhar on how Pant reacts to success

While Pant has played some terrific knocks in his international career so far and has earned a lot of stardom, he doesn’t have any airs about himself. Narrating an incident from the 2020-21 Australian tour where the keeper-batter excelled with the willow, Sridhar recalled:

“We were in the team room and Rohit (Sharma) came and he told Rishabh, tujhe pata nahi hai tune kya kiya hai aaj (you don’t know what you have done). And Rishabh was just normal, as if he had scored a 90-odd in a hot weather tournament in Delhi.”

While Pant has tasted tremendous success in red-ball cricket, he has failed to replicate the same in white-ball formats. According to Sridhar, though, it is not a cause for concern. He opined:

“It is good that he has not set the world on fire in white ball cricket, which means there is plenty to come. I can assure you that there is some serious big stuff on the way. We saw what he did in Manchester. If that’s any indication, wear your seat belts. Don’t worry about what has happened in the past. The future is bright.”

While Pant averages a healthy 43.32 from 31 Tests, he averages 36.52 from 27 ODIs, and 23.94 from 59 T20Is.