Sourav Ganguly hails Rishabh Pant’s match-winning abilities

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly seems to be highly impressed with how Rishabh Pant is turning out to be a match-winner for Team India. Ganguly, who was instrumental in unearthing and grooming match winners during his captaincy days, has called Pant a game-changer.

"I have seen Pant very closely and I believe in match-winners. When they get going on their day, they single-handedly can win matches. Rishabh Pant is such a player," Ganguly told India Today. "I have also said this in the past, had he stayed at the crease for 5 or 6 overs, India could have won the Sydney Test. He is a game-changer. I like match-winners. In my time, we had Sehwag, Yuvraj, Dhoni."

The last couple of years had been tough for Rishabh Pant, he coped with severe criticism from different quarters after a series of bad outings. In fact, he was even dropped from India’s limited over’s squad in T20Is. However, he worked hard on his game, as confirmed by coach Ravi Shastri and skipper Virat Kohli, to fix the issues which were hampering his play.

The results did not take long to show and the wicket-keeper batsman returned a few match-winning innings against Australia on away turf.

His recent success against England has been an extension of the good work he started down under.

Ganguly further credited Pant for ensuring that the last Test against England went India’s way.

"Look at the way he played against England. India were 146 for 6 (4th Test in Ahmedabad). The match could have gone anyway. He turned it around with his knock. Look at his game sense. The second new ball came in. His counterattack against Anderson was brilliant," said Dada who has been on a medical break for the last few weeks.