'Do not try to be someone you are not' - Brad Haddin's message to Rishabh Pant

Cricketers have always been receiving pieces of advice from their peers and often it has proven to be beneficial for them. And, there are a lot of stories, narrated by players themselves about how an input from another player, helped them improve their performance. Recently, giving out a piece of advice to the Indian wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant was his now-retired Australian counterpart, Brad Haddin, who came out and asked Pant to create his own identity on the field.

Haddin after having a 224-match long international career with the Australian cricket team, hung up his boots in 2015, and since has been working closely with a lot of young players, coaching them in order to help them become better players. While Pant is still finding a place to ground his foot firmly in the Indian dressing room, he has shown glimpses of what he is capable of but hasn’t been able to replicate it on a regular basis, both behind the wicket and with the bat in hand.

‘You bring your own style to the team’: Brad Haddin to Rishabh Pant

Brad Haddin must have seen the immense potential that Pant has in store and came up with this piece of advice for him. He advised the youngster to be himself on the field, and express his own personality while playing the sport. “Rishabh Pant should be him. That’s how he’s going to create his identity. He’s got to be himself,” Haddin was quoted as saying by Sportstar.

He added that players have expectations coming along with them at this level of the sport and these are the kind of things that they have to deal with while representing their nation on the cricket field. According to him, it is at this time that the player has to bring along his own style of play, which makes him stand out from others.

Haddin told, “You bring your own style to the team. When I first got my opportunity to play Test cricket, I couldn’t try to be an Adam Gilchrist or Ian Healy. I had to bring my own unique style to the game. One of the challenges here is not trying to be someone you’re not and just be true to yourself.”

Haddin also talked about the fact that India has been blessed to have enjoyed the services of a player like MS Dhoni, who has left behind a legacy that is certainly difficult to carry forward. But the next one who succeeds him should play in such a way that his identity stands out as the wicketkeeper of the Indian cricket team in the coming years.