Former Australia international Matthew Hayden believes that stumper-batter Rishabh Pant will be missed in India’s World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia.
Notably, the 25-year-old was in a terrible car accident last year and had severe injuries. He is currently healing, and his comeback date has not been set.
Hayden stated that Pant’s absence at the time is one of the biggest losses for Indian cricket.
The southpaw has a fantastic record against Australia in the longest format of the game and is also one of the reasons for India’s triumph in the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy on Australian soil.
Meanwhile, Hayden suggested that the team management consider Ishan Kishan for the WTC final because the cricketer, like Pant, can play an aggressive brand of cricket.
He believes Kishan can add some swagger to the batting lineup and that his dynamic style can help the squad win its first ICC title in over a decade.
“One of the big losses to Indian cricket right now is Rishabh Pant. If I was an Indian selector, I certainly go with the more dynamic wicketkeeper batter Ishan Kishan, he also adds that bit of swagger to the batting lineup and in the fielding unit as well,”
Hayden was quoted as saying by The Telegraph online.
Shubman Gill had a fantastic season with the bat for both India and the recently concluded Indian Premier League. Hayden praised him for his accomplishments and predicted that the child would dominate the cricketing globe in the next 15 years.
“You will see a lot of Shubman Gill for the next 15 years. The foundations behind a good Test cricketer are pretty simple. And Shubman, and KL Rahul before him, fundamentally have fantastic games. So, he’ll be a superstar of any cricket format for a very long time,”
he said.
“One of the biggest advantages that Shubman has and he showed this when he was touring Australia is he’s very good off the backfoot as well. So square of wicket play is excellent. And that’ll stand him in good stead even against the best Test sides in the world,”
Hayden added.
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