Before Rishabh Pant’s unfortunate car accident, the wicketkeeper-batsman was regular for India across all 3 formats. Despite being only 25, Pant has earned his place in all formats, becoming a key player for the Men in Blue, particularly in red-ball cricket.
However, there was a time when the youngster was still raw and needed some work to into the Indian team regularly. He was always a mighty good hitter of the ball, but his wicketkeeping needed fine-tuning.
Before overtaking the mantle from MS Dhoni, there was a time when the Southpaw would struggle to take simple catches or inflict stumpings.
During his early days, Pant was an error-prone teenager but he was helped by former Indian fielding coach R Sridhar although, there was a time when the youngster’s stubbornness troubled the then-Indian coach.
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In his book titled ‘Coaching Beyond’, Sridhar revealed how he had nearly stopped coaching Pant as he drove the veteran nuts. However, with time they both gelled together and things became smooth sailing.
“There were some inputs he was little reluctant to take. Because he trusted the game that had brought him to this level. Sometimes, I must confess, it drove me nuts, his stubbornness,” Sridhar wrote.
“But getting angry or frustrated wasn’t going to help anyone. I had to find a way to get Rishabh to try and do different things, if only for him to figure out if those changes might actually be beneficial to his keeping,” he added.
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Sridhar revealed how he stopped giving advice to Pant and gave him some tough love. After a while when the youngster continued to fumble, he realized his mistake.
“We spent a lot of time together at practice, often just him and me and I decided it was time for a little tough love. I stopped giving suggestions and inputs and would ignore his quizzical looks when the ball burst through his hands or he fumbled with his collection. Rishabh has the smarts so it didn’t take him long to work out something wasn’t quite right,” the 52-year-old revealed.
“After a while he walked up to me and said ‘Sir, you aren’t saying anything. Please tell me what to do. Smiling inwardly, I said ‘Maybe you should lead with your head and not with your hands,” Sridhar wrote further.
“Satisfied at having got me to shed my silence, he did precisely that. As the head led the way, so did the body and he was more assured in collecting the ball,” he noted.
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