Important to groom Rishabh as he is the next big thing: Yuvraj

Mumbai, March 25

Rishabh Pant is an outstanding talent and should be groomed properly so that he becomes the next big thing in Indian cricket, feels India’s 2011 World Cup hero Yuvraj Singh.

Yuvraj’s comments came after Pant showed his heroics with the bat once again and played a match-winning unbeaten 78 off just 27 balls for Delhi Capitals against Mumbai Indians in the lung opener between the two sides.

“I can’t really say about (World Cup) selection but Rishabh was outstanding today,” 37-year-old Yuvraj told reporters at the post-match media conference.

“He (Pant) had an outstanding season last year as well. He is playing well in Test matches as well. To score two hundreds overseas at such an age (21 years) shows his character. It is important that we groom him well and hopefully he is the next big thing for us,” said Yuvraj, who was member of the 2011 World Cup winning Indian team.

Yuvraj said skipper Rohit Sharma’s early dismissal had an effect as they were chasing a big total.

“Losing Rohit (Sharma) early (was one of the reasons). (Quinton) de Kock was going well but (we) lost his wicket. (Kieron) Pollard came and quickly lost his wicket. We really couldn’t get partnerships going. The wicket was more of 180-190 wicket, 215 (213) was quite a match-winning score,” said Yuvraj, who also lauded Delhi’s bowling attack.

Delhi Capitals’ batsman Colin Ingram is also happy that Pant is carrying forward from where he had left last year.

“Look, last year I watched him (Pant) from the couch and he seemed in similar form. It is a great sign for us that he is in good form, because he is a match-winner on his day and we saw that (even today),” Ingram said.

Ingram shared an 83-run stand with opener Shikhar Dhawan and he said the partnership laid the foundation for a big score.

“Losing wickets early on is not an ideal scenario in T20 cricket. So that partnership (with Dhawan) was vital at that time. I have only been here for a couple of days and it’s good to build relations quickly. With that partnership with Shikhar, we got to know each other quickly. That set the base for our innings to explode,” he added. PTI