Rishabh Pant has been important to the Indian team in ODI cricket. He has played 27 ODIs for the Men in Blue so far, scoring 840 runs at a strike rate of more than 105. Pant smashed five fifties in ODI cricket and registered his maiden ODI century yesterday against the England cricket team at Old Trafford in Manchester.
Many fans would remember that Rishabh Pant was a last-minute addition to the Indian squad for the ODI Cricket World Cup which happened in 2019. Pant came in as a replacement player and batted at number four for the Indian cricket team.
The wicket-keeper batter had made his ODI debut in October 2018 only, but in just a few months, he played a World Cup for the Indian cricket team. Pant returned with scores of 32, 48, and 4 in his first three World Cup matches.
The fourth match was against the New Zealand cricket team. It was a semifinal match which happened at Old Trafford Park in Manchester. Like the match against the England cricket team yesterday, India had a top-order collapse against the Kiwis that day, but Pant could not score a hundred like he did yesterday.
Rishabh Pant played one of his slowest knocks of ODI cricket against New Zealand in the semifinal
Since the Indian team was down to 24/4 in 10 overs, Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya decided to play defensively instead of attacking the Kiwis. Pandya scored 32 runs off 62 balls, whereas Pant aggregated 32 runs from 56 deliveries at a strike rate of less than 60.
Pant tried a big shot off Mitchell Santner’s bowling but gave a catch to Colin de Grandhomme in the process. A Twitter user shared a photo of Pant after his dismissal at Old Trafford in 2019 and compared it with his celebration after his mature knock of 125 runs against the England team yesterday.
Manchester 2019 to Manchester 2022 – Rishabh Pant has come a long way in world cricket. pic.twitter.com/Dhm79i2Z9g
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) July 17, 2022
