Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has asked the media to stop comparing Rishabh Pant and his qualities to MS Dhoni. Gambhir who has won two IPL titles as captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders said that the talks about his similarity with Dhoni put Pant under immense pressure and he starts modelling his game in accordance to MS Dhoni. He suggested that Pant is no Dhoni and that he too should accept himself as a different player and stop thinking about it after listening from people.
“First of all, you have to stop saying that Rishabh Pant is the next MS Dhoni. That is one thing which media needs to stop doing it. The more media talks about it, the more Rishabh Pant starts thinking on those chances. He can never be MS Dhoni. He has to be Rishabh Pant,” Gambhir said on ESPNCricinfo's post-match show after another poor outing by Rishabh Pant in the Delhi Capitals’ loss against the Mumbai Indians in the first qualifier.
Gambhir also went on to decipher the difference between MS Dhoni and Rishabh Pant in terms of the range of shots they had at the time of making an entry into international cricket. Gambhir said that Pant has a lot to work on both in keeping the wicket and batting if he has to do well in international cricket for a long period of time.
“MS Dhoni probably had so much of range when he came on to international scenes. With Rishabh Pant, only because he could hit those big sixes and stuff, people started comparing him with someone like MS Dhoni. Rishabh Pant has a lot to improve, especially from the keeping point of views and from the batting point of view as well,” he added.
Pant has had an abysmal season with the bat in the ongoing edition of the IPL as he could manage to accumulate only 285 runs from the 12 matches he has played so far.
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