Rishabh Pant, who joined the Indian cricket team as cover for the injured Shikhar Dhawan for the ongoing ICC World Cup 2019, joined the team practice ahead of their match against Pakistan in Manchester on Sunday.
The youngster had a warm-up session with the entire team and he was also seen interacting with MS Dhoni. Dhoni had a long chat with Pant and also gave him some wicket-keeping tips during their interaction.
#RishabhPant Learning wicket keeping skills from #MSDhoni
This is good quality of #pant zeal to achieve…
“Future In Safe Hands”
🏆🏆🏆🙏🙏🙏#INDvPAK #ICCWC2019 #BCCI #ICCWorldCup #ViratKohli #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/lddPUeC9Xc— 🧑 IN 💙WORLD CUP🏆 (@Vaseem9999) June 15, 2019
Pant has been flown in as a cover for Dhawan, who is certain to miss the Pakistan game. The wicket-keeper batsman, who was ignored for India’s original 15-member squad, has not been named as an official replacement. The Indian team management instead, opted to wait for Dhawan to regain his full fitness later this month.
Though the Indian think tank is confident of Dhawan’s availability towards the latter half of the group stage and knockouts, they have kept Pant on stand by just in case the opener does not recover on time.
READ: IND vs PAK: Virat Kohli has his say on Mohammad Amir rivalry
“Shikhar will be in a plaster for a couple of weeks, we’ll assess and see. Hopefully, he’ll be available for the latter half and the semi-finals. He’s motivated, we wanted to keep him back,” Kohli had said after India’s third World Cup game against New Zealand was washed out without a ball being bowled at Nottingham on Thursday.
India is currently positioned at the third place in the standings of ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup. They have 5 points from 3 encounters with the match against New Zealand getting abandoned due to rain.
Look who’s here 👍#TeamIndia #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/V4y27pBYOC
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 15, 2019
Kohli said playing against Pakistan is a marquee event and the game brings out the best in everyone.
“As soon as you enter the field, it’s calm and relaxed. The atmosphere from the outside, for the first time, it’s a bit intimidating, but we’ll look to execute well. It’s been competitive for years, it’s a marquee event all over the world, honour to be a part of the big game. Brings out the best in all of us,” Kohli said.
First Published:
Jun 15, 2019 19:47 IST
Source: HindustanTimes