Sydney: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has given Rishabh Pant the ‘pride of place’ in a promotional ICC T20 World Cup video posted on social media, with the charismatic wicketkeeper-batter, his cricketing gear in place, emerging from the blue waters of the Sydney Harbour and surefootedly heading into the city.
ICC posted the short video on Instagram on Sunday and captioned it, “Welcome to The Big Time, Rishabh Pant #T20WorldCup.”
The video has since got lakhs of views with fans appreciating the promo, while some are having apprehensions about the cricketer keeping his place in the T20 side.
“Imagine he is not picked for the world cup squad,” said a fan.
Pant has been in sublime form in England, where he scored a superb century and a half-ton in the rescheduled fifth Test against the hosts and smashed a 15-ball 26 in the second T20I at Edgbaston pairing with Rohit Sharma at the top on Saturday.
But he did not make much of an impression in the recently concluded five-match T20I series against South Africa at home.
However, India head coach Rahul Dravid has backed Pant, saying he is an integral part of the side, despite the player managing just 58 runs at a strike rate of 105.45 in the series against South Africa.
Pant’s performance in IPL 2022 too was below-par, with the Delhi Capitals skipper scoring 340 runs at an average of 30.90.
Pant, though is a popular figure Down Under, where during the 2020/21 Test tour, he played a historic innings of 89 not out in the final Test at the Gabba, which the visitors won by three wickets to clinch the four-Test series 2-1.
–IANS
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