‘Rishabh Pant Deserves To Be In India’s T20 World Cup Squad’: Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting shares a close bond with Rishabh Pant since both players are involved in Delhi Capitals.

New Delhi: Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting reckoned that Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pany would be the ideal pick for selectors for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 which is scheduled to start from June.

Pant has made a comeback after missing cricketing action for more than a year and the batter is in lethal form in the ongoing season of IPL. He scored 194 runs in six outings for his franchise DC.

“Do I believe whether Rishabh should be there in the World Cup squad? Absolutely I do. He deserves to be in that WT20 squad by the end of the IPL,” Ponting told PTI in an exclusive interview.

“I think we have seen Rishabh play the way we have seen him play in last five or six years in IPL, and now back playing for India,” added the Australian batting great.

While he acknowledged that there are lots of options for Indian selectors as far as choosing a keeper-batter goes, Pant remains the No.1 choice for him.

“One thing we certainly know that there is lot of depth around Indian cricket. With keeper-batters, I feel some guys are in really good form at the moment. (Ishan) Kishan is playing well, (Sanju) Samson is playing well and KL Rahul is playing well.

“There are a lot of options but if I was picking a team, I would have Rishabh Pant in it every day of the week,” the ‘Punter’ made his call.

Since his entry as DC coach, Ponting has shared a special bond with Pant and he is a touch emotional seeing him in full flow once again.

“Rishabh’s comeback to international cricket is nothing short of remarkable. I spent a lot of time with him during last IPL and a lot of us were actually sceptical that whether he will actually play the game again, such a horrific accident and I had spoken to him about it, I wasn’t sure whether he will play again.”