New Delhi. Ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, Rishabh Pant was the most doubted by the fans. There was a special reason behind it. After being badly injured in a car accident in December 2022, Pant returned to active cricket from IPL 2024. Despite his excellent performances in both batting and wicketkeeping in the IPL, doubts persist about Pant in international cricket. The question on everyone’s mind was whether this 26-year-old player would be able to handle the double duty of a wicketkeeper-batsman or not. Anyway, wicketkeeping is a specialized job that requires 100% fitness. To collect the ball, the player has to dive several times and ‘stretch’ his body several times.
However, Pant’s explosive performance in the current T20 World Cup has put an end to all these doubts. In their last Super 8 match, the Rohit Sharma brigade defeated Australia by 24 runs to maintain a 100 percent win record and enter the semi-finals topping Group 1. Pant has proved to be a ‘trump card’ for Team India in the tournament. The team management’s decision to ‘promote’ him to the third batting position was a ‘master stroke’. Even while keeping wickets, watching Pant did not give the impression that the player has returned to international cricket after almost a year and a half. Pant is the second highest run-scorer for India in this tournament so far. The special thing is that he has scored these runs with a good strike rate. The way he bowled and bowled aggressively against the bowlers in the tournament answered every question regarding the impact of the accident on the player’s body, especially his legs.
Not only this, he also excelled in wicketkeeping and achieved a feat that even great wicketkeeper batsmen like MS Dhoni, Adam Gilchrist and Kumar Sangakkara could not achieve. Pant is the only wicketkeeper to score more than 100 runs and take more than 10 ‘catches’ (catch/stumping) in a single T20 World Cup. Before him no wicketkeeper could get 10 or more dismissals. Not only this, Pant has taken three catches each in the matches against Pakistan and Afghanistan in the current T20 World Cup.
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Pant’s performance so far in T20 World Cup 2024
vs Ireland: 36 not out, 2 catches
Against Pakistan: 42 runs, 3 catches
vs America: 18 runs, 2 catches
Vs Afghanistan: 20 runs, 3 catches
Against Bangladesh: 36 runs
Vs Australia: 15 runs
Note: In the group match, the match between India and Canada was washed out due to rain.
Apart from Pant, no keeper has 10 ‘victims’ in T20 WC.
In 6 matches of the tournament, Rishabh Pant has so far taken 10 catches apart from scoring 167 runs (highest 42) at an average of 33.40 and a strike rate of 132.53. South Africa’s AB de Villiers (2012), England’s Jos Buttler (2022), Australia’s Adam Gilchrist (2007), Pakistan’s Kamran Akmal (2010), Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara (2009), Australia’s Matthew Wade (2021), Netherlands’ Scott Edwards as wicketkeepers before him (2022) took the most ‘victims’ in a single T20 World Cup with 9. Talking about MS Dhoni, as a wicketkeeper, he had the highest number of dismissals (four catches, four stumpings) in the 2016 T20 World Cup.
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The performances in the last two T20 World Cups have been mediocre
Apart from scoring 254 runs in 13 matches of this tournament, this is Rishabh Pant’s third World Cup, he has made 12 dismissals (11 catches and one stumping). Prior to this, the T20 World Cup of 2021 and 2022 had been normal for him as a player. In 2021, he scored 78 runs in 5 matches at an average of 39.00 with one catch and one stumping to his name, while in 2022, Pant could only contribute 9 runs in 2 matches. Dinesh Karthik was replaced by Pant in the playing eleven for most of the matches after his failure with the bat in this World Cup.
Dhoni has taken the most catches in the T20 World Cup
MS Dhoni has taken the most wickets (32) as a wicketkeeper in the T20 World Cup so far. Dhoni played six T20 World Cups and took 21 catches and 11 stumpings in 33 matches. Pakistan’s Kamran Akmal is second with just 30 wickets in 30 matches. Dhoni achieved four catches/stumps in a single match in the 2010 World Cup against Afghanistan and in the 2012 World Cup.
Tags: ICC T20 World Cup, MS Dhoni, Rishabh Pant, T20 World Cup, Team India
First published: June 25, 2024, 08:32 IST