Published: Dec 17, 2019, 02:24 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 17, 2019, 02:24 PM (IST)
Former India opener Gautam Gambhir reckons that Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer need to emulate their seniors in consitently converting half-centuries into triple-figure scores. Pant on Sunday scored his maiden ODI fifty while Iyer has so far struck five half-centuries in 10 ODIs.
“He (Pant) needs to be consistent, he is playing in all three formats,” Gambhir said on Star Sports. “He is not playing Test cricket but he is part of the squad which shows the faith from the team management – but he still needs to get more consistent. He needs to convert the 60-70s into 100 as well, that’s what MS Dhoni used to do a lot as well.”
Iyer seems to have cemented his place in the middle order and could very well end the India’s search for a reliable No. 4. “He (Iyer) has waited for this opportunity for a long time, and now he is taking those big shots. I really want him to convert those 60s – 70s to a 100 and that is what will make him exceptional from the rest of the middle-order batsmen. That is what Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul do, Shreyas Iyer needs to that as well,” Gambhir said.
He continued, “He has scored 3-4 half-centuries but he hasn’t converted any of them into a 100. He needs to get one 100, because once you get that one international 100, you start enjoying the pace of that and then they keep coming, till the time you don’t get one international 100 you will never know how it feels like to get that for your country.”
