“He is a batter like Viru” – Aakash Chopra lauds Rishabh Pant’s knock in IND vs NZ 2024 3rd Test

Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra compared Rishabh Pant with his former teammate Virender Sehwag. Chopra showered praise on Pant for playing an attacking knock of 60 runs off 59 balls on the second day of the third Test match against New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Saturday.

India resumed their first innings on the second day’s morning at 86-4 after New Zealand posted 235 runs on a tricky pitch. A good partnership was the need of the hour for the home side and Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant provided the same as they added 96 runs.

Pant was the aggressor as he completed his fifty off just 36 balls, the fastest for any Indian batter against New Zealand. The left-hander also had the rub of the green as he was dropped by Matt Henry when he was on 55 but he could not make the most of his second life as he was plumbed in front by Ish Sodhi.

“Rishabh Pant will keep playing like this no matter how many left-arm spinners might come. It will be rare for a left-arm spinner to come before him and not get hit. He might not get hit in one innings but will get hit in the next. I am not surprised at all with the way he started today and the way he played,” Aakash Chopra said on Colors Cineplex.

“He is a batter like Viru (Virender Sehwag). Viru used to say that a batter only makes the off-spinner a bowler. He (Pant) feels a batter makes the left-arm spinner a bowler. If a left-arm spinner is bowling, it doesn’t matter how the pitch is and how big the ground is as he has to hit the ball into the stands,” the former India opener added.

The renowned commentator said Pant is not perturbed with the deep fielders when he goes for the big shots.

“Rishabh Pant’s specialty is that a fielder might be placed on the boundary line, everyone knows that he would jump down the track and hit a six, but he still does that because he hits the balls into the stands. Very few players, especially in Test cricket, challenge the fielders in the deep. Viru was the one Indian who used to do this and now Rishabh is the second,” he observed.

Pant smashed eight fours and two sixes in his fine knock. India took a 28-run lead after posting 263 runs on the board with Shubman Gill top-scoring with 90. New Zealand ended the second day’s play at 171-9, leading by 143 runs with Jadeja and Ashwin bagging four and three scalps respectively.