Pant batting at no. 4 is the best position for his play-style.
India’s batting lineup has seen multiple changes this year alone. However, regardless of how many changes they make, one problem always persists: the number 4 batting position. There have been as many as 13 players that have been put in that spot, but none of them seems to have worked.
KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Vijay Shankar, and Rishabh Pant were all placed at fourth to bat during the World Cup. Suffice to say that no one could make a large enough impact on the games. Recently, during India’s ODI series against the West Indies, Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey were seen as probable candidates for the spot. Pandey was chosen to bat at fourth during the first ODI but rain washed away the game.
With all the talk about the fourth position batting problem, Virat Kohli said that he would vote for Panth to take the spot. He said that Pant would bat at 4 and Iyer at 5. He also added that both positions are ‘floating positions’ unlike the top three and positions 6 and 7. “Four and five are more like floating batting position for us, according to the situation of the game anyone can bat anywhere. For me, top-3 and probably 6 and 7 are specialist batting positions than four and five.”
Rishabh Pant has been criticized for failing to live up to MS Dhoni’s standards. The young player is yet to make a big impact on the team.
With MS Dhoni not part of the team during their tour of the West Indies, it is Rishabh Pant’s responsibility to take his place and contribute just as much or more than what Dhoni has. So far, he has not disappointed. To find out more about team India’s upcoming matches and the respective odds for those matches, visit Betwala’s page.
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