IND vs SA 2019: India Test Squad Announced; Rishabh Pant Left Out

India Team management have taken a big move as the wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant has been dropped from the Test team. Wriddhiman Saha has replaced him in the first Test against South Africa at Visakhapatnam. Although the youngster was not in a good form and scored only 58 runs in the two-Test series against the West Indies. Even he faced criticisms as well for his poor shot selection.

Rishabh Pant replaced an injured Saha, the first-choice wicket-keeper last year and did pretty well on the tours of England and Australia. He scored a hundred each. However, Saha who last played in January 2018 against South Africa was chosen ahead of Pant because of his superior glove work, especially in India. He has shown decent form with the bat as well, scoring two 60s against West Indies A and a 60 against South Africa A in Mysore recently.

However, in a recent interview Ravi Shastri had mentioned that they will give a long rope to Pant.

“Pant is different, he is world-class and is a brutal match-winner. Very few around in the world game; I can?t pick five on my hands when it comes to white-ball cricket, T20 cricket. So the patience we will have with him is a lot,” said Shastri.

“All your media reports and all the experts writing (but) Pant is in great space with this Indian team. Experts, they have a job, they can speak. Pant is a special kid and he has already done enough. And he is only going to learn. This team management will back him to the hilt,” Shastri added.