It’s always special playing against Pakistan: Rishabh Pant

Whenever there is an India-Pakistan affair in the making, a lot of words fly left and right to spice up the ambiance and before the war unfolds on the 22 yards, there is a full-blown psychological battle that goes around, underlining the heat that this contest brings into the mix.

With the two reckoning forces all set to hit their respective stride in the imminent T20 World Cup on Sunday, the latest addition to this list of verbal wars was Rishabh Pant who bellowed words of caution to Pakistan, reminiscing his crucial partnership with Virat Kohli in the preceding edition of this contest back in 2021 in Dubai.

Talking to ICC about his consecutive maximums in the previous contest, Pant said, “I fondly remember that I smacked Hasan Ali for two sixes in the same over. We were just trying to get the run rate up because we lost early wickets and we staged a partnership – me and Virat. We were increasing the run rate and I smacked him for two sixes with one hand... my special shot.”

Despite Pant’s stand with Kohli that saw India battling till the end, the number of runs added on the board wasn’t too extraordinary and the Indian bowlers could do very little to thwart their continental counterparts from clinching the bagging rights as Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan stitched an unbeaten partnership for the opening stand.

Pant also highlighted the fans and their emotions, stating, “It’s always special playing against Pakistan because there is a special hype around that match as always. There are so many emotions involved, not only for us but the fans and everyone. It’s a different kind of feeling, a different kind of ambiance when you go onto the field and when you take on the field, you see people cheering here and there. It’s a different atmosphere and when we were singing our national anthem, I actually got goosebumps.”

India will be facing their arch-rivals at Melbourne on Sunday as both sides joust for supremacy in their respective openers, hoping to prise out a positive result that can provide them a major uplift in terms of momentum as the tournament swings by.