Sanjay Manjrekar, a former Indian cricketer, picked Rishabh Pant as a wildcard for Rohit Sharma’s team in the T20 World Cup final against South Africa ahead of Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah.
After an accident that could have been fatal in December 2022, many people have drawn inspiration from Pant’s return to cricket.
This explosive left hander returned to lead Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. His brilliant performance called him up to the Indian fifteen member squad for the mega event.
In India’s opening game of the tournament, he demonstrated quality by using reverse scoop which sent the ball over wicketkeeper’s head and cleared ropes against Ireland.
Manjrekar identified Pant as the man to watch out for against South Africa on Saturday at Kensington Oval in Barbados.
“I think it will be, I think we will get a great idea about who the big match player is. I’m going to go with a wild card and say Rishabh Pant will be the player to watch out for,” Manjrekar told ANI. An expert on ‘caught and bold’ show on Disney+ Hotstar is where he features.
While Kohli and captain Rohit Sharma moved up into opening position, pant was promoted at number three spot.
Pant has done well in his new role managing 171 runs from seven games at an average of 28.50 with a strike rate of 129.54.
Less than one year after head coach Rahul Dravid faces off again against captain Rohit in their third ICC tournament final; Pant would be hoping to change things around for India because winning world cup trophy is still their aim.
Australia heartbroken millions of Indian supporters during World Test Championship and ODI World Cup too except this time Australia won’t spoil it as they look for perfect ending this time around.
With bowlers’ influential spells and Rohit’s 92-run blitzkrieg, India pushed Australia to the precipice of exclusion. Afghanistan’s historic triumph over one of the giants in cricket got the Baggy Greens stunned before they collapsed against India.
Australia was great during the tournament but lost 2 games which were the only two matches that mattered in a world cup final.
“When you have a bad day in a very tough format, you pay the price for it. Losing to Afghanistan. It was as good a side as India. The two best sides in the tournament were India and Australia,” Manjrekar added.
