Ricky Ponting believes Rishabh Pant will be one of the players to watch out for during T20 WC 2022

New Delhi [India], June 10 (ANI): Legendary Australian batter Ricky Ponting said that wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant will be one of the players to watch out for during the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year.
"He is wonderful ... talk about great people. He is just an outstanding young man that has got the world at his feet. He will be exceptionally dangerous for India, especially on the wickets we will prepare in Australia (for the T20 World Cup) - good, fast, flat, bouncy wickets. He will be one of the players to watch at the tournament for sure," said Ponting on the latest episode of ICC Review.
About his batting position, Ponting reckons that Team India will use him as a floater in the T20I side.
"I reckon they will have him as a floater. They will have listed (him) at five in the batting line-up. But in certain situations, if they get to a stage where there are seven-eight overs to go and they are one or two down, they will look to sending him in and giving him as much time as they can. He is that dynamic, and that explosive. That is certainly the way that I will try and use him," he said.
Ponting fully backs the inclusion of batter Dinesh Karthik's inclusion in the T20 World Cup Squad for India after his exploits in the Indian Premier League where he excelled as a finisher for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), scoring 330 runs in the season at an average of 55.00, a strike rate of over 183 and staying unbeaten ten times.
His strong performances have earned him a recall to the Indian T20I squad for the ongoing five-match series against South Africa at home.
"I would have him, and I would have him in at that five or six role. The way that he finished games for RCB this year, he took his game to another level. When you look at the IPL, you want your better players to maybe be able to win two or three, maybe four games through the season. If you can get that out of them, it is probably going to be a really good return," he said.
"But Dinesh probably had a bigger impact on a lot of the games than most of the other RCB players did this year. Virat (Kohli) having the year he has had, Maxi (Glenn Maxwell) started the tournament really well ... but DK was the one. And Faf too I guess, who kept the RCB bandwagon rolling. I would be surprised if he is not in there (India) line-up somewhere," he added.
On Virat Kohli's current form, the legendary batter is sure that Kohli will work out his technical or mental issues pretty quickly given how professional he is.
Since his last international ton in November 2019, Kohli has played 63 international games and scored 2,478 runs at an average of 37.
"It (poor form) is going to happen to everyone at some stage. Virat probably had a 10 or 12-year run where has not had many down times. But there was a lot of talk and conjecture around the IPL about how tired and burnt out he might be. That is for him to work out and assess and find ways to improve, whether it is a technical thing or a mental thing. I am sure, being the absolute professional that he is, that he'll work it out and work it out pretty quickly," he said.
"One thing I do know from experience is that quite often you bluff yourself as a player that you are not actually tired, that you are not physically or mentally tired. You always find a way to get yourself up for training, you always find a way to get yourself up for game. It is not until you actually stop and have a couple of days do you realise how tired and fatigued you are.
So that might be exactly where Virat Kohli is at now, but I am pretty sure he would not stay down for too long," he added.
The legendary batter believes that the spinner Kuldeep Yadav can replicate his good performances shown during his time with Delhi Capitals in IPL 2022 for India as well.
Kuldeep was the top wicket-taker for DC with 21 wickets in 13 games and was among the top five on the bowling charts in IPL 2022.
"He was one of the targets of mine going into the auction because I have seen how good he has been in the past. His skill had not gone anywhere. It was a matter of us getting really close to him and working him out as an individual. Try and set an environment and training regime for him to try and bring out the best in him," he said.
"We all worked really closely with him. Watto (Shane Watson) in particular worked a lot with him on the mental side of the game, and we got some really good returns from him. His name will come up I am sure, because he is something that little bit different - left-arm leg-spinner," he added. (ANI)