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“Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya can be next Dhoni and Yuvraj for India,” Sunil Gavaskar offers high praise for India’s dynamic middle order duo

MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh are regarded as India's greatest ever middle order pair in white ball cricket

The former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar reckons that Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya can form the same kind of combination that India’s two former limited over superstars Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni formed during their time.

Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni finished off a lot of white-ball games for India and at times, they bailed the team out of tricky situations as well, before teeing off. According to Sunil Gavaskar, who was speaking on Sports Tak, the way Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya paced their innings in the third ODI against England, it was very reminiscent of Yuvraj and Dhoni.

When India had lost 4 quick wickets and England were way ahead of the game at Old Trafford, a partnership was needed at that stage, and rather than indulging themselves in rash shots or big-hitting straightaway, Pant and Pandya took a lot of quick singles, pretty much like what Yuvraj and Dhoni used to do in their days and once they got into their zone, they put an exhibition of stroke play.

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Interestingly, after Rishabh Pant scored that match-winning hundred on Sunday, Yuvraj Singh tweeted tagging Pant and told him that it seems the 45-minute conversation, that he had with him, worked. To which Pant replied, it indeed worked.

It seems Pant is in regular touch with Yuvraj and that will only do him a world of good in terms of understanding the construction of the innings in 50-over and 20-over cricket because Yuvraj has been one of India’s finest middle-order batsmen in white ball cricket.

I hope Pant and Pandya win the hearts of the Indian fans: Sunil Gavaskar

Rishabh Pant has regularly been seen with MS Dhoni as well. Recently when Dhoni celebrated his birthday in London and Pant had got a couple of days’ break from his national team duties after the one-off test match against England, he went to Dhoni’s birthday bash and celebrated his birthday with him.

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Sunil Gavaskar said while talking about Pant and Pandya that he hopes these two players, who have an extraordinary abilities, win the hearts of the Indian fans just like Yuvraj and Dhoni did.

Abhishek

I write a bit on cricket and I am more interested in technical and tactical side of the game, rather than bravado.

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