There are a couple of things Rishabh Pant needs to work on if he has to keep in Test cricket on turning wickets: Parthiv Patel

India and Australia are battling it out in the third Test, which is being staged at Sydney Cricket Ground, wherein the visitors had tough times at the office on day one. It was wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant whose faults drew a lot of criticism as he dropped some ordinary catches behind the stumps. His place in the Test team is once again amid all the questions as he displayed some dismal form and dropped Will Pucovski both times.

The first time he dropped Pucovski, it was Ravi Ashwin’s delivery in the 22nd over, and the debutant stood on 26 runs. The second time, the incident repeated when Pucovski edged a short delivery by Mohammad Siraj. Though the ball landed behind Pant, it was certainly not an impossible feat to achieve. In the same light, former wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel reckoned that Pant needs to level up his keeping skills to be able to turn wickets or difficult wickets.

Rishabh Pant has to work on soft hands: Parthiv Patel

“There are a couple of things he needs to work on if he has to keep in Test cricket on turning wickets or difficult wickets. He has to work on soft hands, and he also needs to point his fingers downwards. If you see the catch that was dropped (off Ashwin), his fingers were pointed forward instead of down. He has to work on getting his fingers down. He went at it with a bit of hard hands. If you observe closely, his hands aren’t together. They keep separating. This has happened often, and he’s also been working on it,” said Parthiv in a chat with Cricbuzz.

Former Australian great and Rishabh Pant’s Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting has also stated that the young man needs to work significantly on his wicketkeeping tactics. All those catches should have been caught. He also stated in harsh words that since his debut, he has dropped more catches than any keeper in the world. This clearly highlights that he has a lot to improve, even if he starts now.