Rishabh Pant can be an X-factor for any team: Vikram Rathour

Vikram Rathour, the batting coach of Team India, has backed Rishabh Pant to come good in the future. The southpaw has found it tough to perform in white-ball cricket, but has kept featuring in the national playing eleven. Of late, he could manage only 51 runs in the T20I series versus the West Indies, including a duck in the third match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Despite the repeated failures, head coach Ravi Shastri and skipper Virat Kohli have spoken highly of the youngster. Now it’s the turn of Rathour to shut down the criticism hurled at Pant. Rathour, who replaced Sanjay Bangar as the batting coach earlier this year, feels that Pant can be an X-factor and once he finds his feet, he can turn out to be a massive player.

We believe that Rishabh Pant is a good player, says Rathour

“The reason why we keep discussing him is because he has got immense ability and everybody believes that he can be an x-factor in any team and in the Indian team as well,” Rathour was quoted as saying in India Today.

“He has been backed by the selectors and the team management because all of us believe that he is a good player… Once he starts getting runs, I am sure, he will be a massive player,” Rathour added.

2019 turned out to be a year where India bossed run-chases, but was a tad vulnerable while defending targets. In the previous series, the Men in Blue chased down 2008 in Hyderabad, but couldn’t defend 171 in Thiruvananthapuram.

In the Mumbai T20I, India put on 240 runs and won by 67 runs to seal the series 2-1. Going by India’s records while chasing, Rathour reckons that the team is number one while batting second. The fact that India did well while defending a target in Mumbai made Rathour happy.

“I think we are the number one team in the world when we are chasing targets. (When you are) batting first, you need a different kind of fearlessness. When we are chasing targets, we know the target and plan our game plans better. The way we batted in the last game, I think that was one big tick in the box and we are looking forward to maintaining that,” he added.