Rahul Dravid makes a big statement on Rishabh Pant's chances for 20-20 World Cup 2022

India wicketkeeper batter, Rishabh Pant had a terrible time with the bat during the five-match T20I series against South Africa. Pant could only muster 58 runs in the series at an average of 14.50 and a strike rate of 105.45. He was getting troubled by the opposition bowlers bowling outside the off stump. Meanwhile, head coach Rahul Dravid is backing him for the long run.

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"Personally, he would have liked to score a few more runs but it is not concerning him. Certainly, he is a very big part of our plans going ahead in next few months," Dravid said during the post-match press conference.

Dravid added that he doesn't want to be critical on the left-hander and said that the team needs a player to attack in the middle overs which is why it is hard to judge a player based on two or three games.

"I just don't want to be critical. In the middle overs, you need people to play slightly attacking brand of cricket, to take the game on a little more. Sometimes it's very hard to judge it based on two or three games," the head coach said.

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The former India skipper reminded the fans that Pant batted at an outstanding strike rate in the Indian T20 League 2022.

"I think he had a pretty good IPL in terms of strike-rate even though it might not have looked good on averages. In IPL, he looked to move up a little bit (in terms of averages) and probably three years ago he was on those numbers. We are hoping that we can get those numbers from him at the international level."

"In the process (of playing an attacking game), he might go wrong in a few games but he remains an integral part of our batting line-up with the power he has and the fact that he is a left-hander is important to us in the middle overs, he played some good knocks," he said.