Ever since Rishabh Pant made his captaincy debut in the first T20I of the five-match series against South Africa at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium on Thursday, he has become a topic of discussion for his controversial decisions. India lost the first game by seven wickets and failed to claim the world record for most consecutive T20I wins. Pant, who replaced KL Rahul as the captain of the Indian cricket team for this series, made some interesting decisions where he did not allow India’s premier spinner Yuzvendra Chahal to bowl his full quota of four overs. He also asked the leg-spinner to bowl the last over of the innings.
How will #TeamIndia approach the second @Paytm #INDvSA T20I in Cuttack?
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— BCCI (@BCCI) June 11, 2022
Opening up on Rishabh Pant’s captaincy, former India cricketer Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel, “Rishabh Pant tries to think out of the box at times. We have seen that he did not give Kuldeep Yadav his four overs in IPL. , even when he took four of his first three wickets. It has happened not just once but on several occasions. He is a different kind of captain. As far as the batting order is concerned, I don’t think Rishabh Pant is deciding it. Rahul Dravid must be doing it.”
Earlier in the pre-match press conference, India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar also spoke on Pant’s captaincy, where he said that Pant is a young captain and his leadership skills will improve going forward. “Rishabh Pant is a young captain, it was his first game. It happens to everyone. I am sure he will try to do better in the next matches. It depends on the team how the captain looks. We bowled well. No, he takes every decision and if he brings a wicket, everyone welcomes the call but if it goes the other way, people criticize. But I think, it depends on the bowling team That’s how the captain looks. We didn’t do well as a bowling unit,” Kumar said.