Pant irreplaceable, Warner will open: Pointing on IPL
New Delhi: Rishabh Pant is irreplaceable in Delhi Capitals set-up and no one can bring in the requisite impact that he brings in, Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting said here on Friday, ahead of the team’s upcoming IPL season.
Pant, who survived a horrific car crash last December, is out for an indefinite period and if Ponting would have his way, he wants his favourite player to be beside him in the Delhi Capitals’ dug-out during home games.
“Pant is a huge loss and it doesn’t matter who we bring in as we are still going to miss Rishabh.
I am not going to joke or try and gloss over that fact and he is one of the best players in the world in three formats of the game,” Ponting was straight as ramrod in his reply, when asked how he plans to fill-up the maverick keeper-batter’s slot.
“He (Pant) is ranked in top five among Test batsmen in world and obviously our leader and has been our No. 4 batter in middle-order and finisher for us and replacing him is going to be pretty much impossible,” the former Australian skipper made no bones about the cold and hard facts during an interaction with select media. However, a young Mumbai all-rounder Aman Hakim Khan has caught Ponting’s attention and he seemed interested in his talent having watched a couple of net sessions at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
“Aman Khan is one that has really impressed us and we traded Shardul (Thakur) with KKR to get him in and he has been ultra-impressive and I don’t know how much you have seen of him and his last couple of days at training has been pretty special,” Ponting gave his assessment of the youngster.
However, he agreed that it will take multiple players to bring that power-hitting impact in the middle-order so that Pant’s absence is covered.
“So when we are talking about losing some power in middle-order, Aman Khan, Rovman Powell and someone like Axar Patel, whose batting has improved a lot in last 12 months, we will find ways to cover for Rishabh but we will not get same quality player,” the Tasmanian said.
David Warner might have batted at number four for Australia in the recently-concluded third ODI against India but for DC, the skipper for this edition will continue to open, a slot where he has got all his success over the past decade.
“I don’t want Warner to bat at No. 4. He has been one of the most successful openers in IPL history. I think we saw the games he played for DC last year. “He was our leading run-scorer and the number of games that he won with his own batting. And he is such a competitive guy, guy who is going at top of the
order”.
