India captain Virat Kohli offered brilliant advice to struggling wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant ahead of their first T20I match against the West Indies at Hyderabad on Friday.
At the toss, Kohli said Pant should "watch the ball and hit it. The whole world is looking at you, and ignore the people and the media."
Watch it here:
Pant has been under quite some pressure in recent times after he failed to perform to potential. But Pant will have a chance to surpass MS Dhoni's record of most dismissals in T20Is between India and West Indies.
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Pant currently has three dismissals from seven T20Is played between India and West Indies while Dhoni leads the list with five from seven matches in the T20I format. Former Windies stumper Dinesh Ramdin is second on the list with five dismissals while Andre Fletcher is on the third spot with four dismissals. Dinesh Karthik is at the fourth spot with three dismissals.
Former India skipper and current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has backed the youngster and said that Pant should learn from all the criticism, including the chants of "Dhoni, Dhoni" and find a way forward.
"It's good for him (Pant). He should get used to it. Let him hear it and let him find a way to succeed. He will be under pressure and let him go through it and figure out on his own," Ganguly said at the 'India Today Conclave (East)'.
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The BCCI chief also said that BCCI and Indian cricket must be thankful to Dhoni for his contribution and went on to add that it will take Pant 15 years to achieve what Dhoni achieved for the country.
"The BCCI can't be thankful enough to MS for what he has done for Indian cricket. We will leave it at that. We are speaking to Virat, the selectors, that's what it is. We will address (Dhoni future) as and when it comes.
"Every day, you don't get MS Dhoni. It will take Pant 15 years to achieve what MS has achieved," he said.
On the eve of the match, Kohli had said that "we certainly believe in Rishabh's ability. As you say, it's (also) the player's responsibility to do well, but our responsibility is to give him space, to support him. He should get support and it is disrespectful if you don't get it."
"As Rohit (Sharma) said recently, he needs to be left alone, he is a match-winner. Once he comes good, you will see a very different version of him. He can't be isolated to such an extent that he doesn't do well. We are here to do things for him," he added.
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India win the toss and will bowl first against the reigning World T20 champions.
