Former India player Anil Kumble highly praised Rishabh Pant for his decent batting and maintaining his performance against Pakistan yesterday.

India faced Pakistan for the eighth time in the history of the ICC T20 World Cups since the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2007. For Rishabh Pant, it was only his second outing against the Men in Green led by batsman Babar Azam. Pant played his first T20 World Cup match against the Pakistanis during the 2021 edition in the United Arab Emirates.

Rishabh Pant’s first outing against Pakistan was not what he expected as Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan led his team to a 10-wicket victory. It was the first time the Green Army had won a match against India in a WC T20 and all the previous ones had gone in India’s favour.

In the 2022 World T20, Rishabh Pant was part of the team but was not picked in the Indian XI due to the presence of Dinesh Karthik in the team. Just after securing his first win against Pakistan in November, Pant met with an unfortunate car accident that kept him out of action for over a year. Because of this, he even had to miss the ICC Cricket World Cup at home.

But yesterday the situation was very different. Rishabh Pant was an opener who came to bat at number 3, scored over 40 runs and most importantly put up some brilliant efforts in the field and behind the stumps. His performance has sparked a lot of reactions from former cricketers and Anil Kumble has become the latest to join that list.

What did Anil Kumble say about Rishabh Pant?

While speaking to ESPNcricinfo yesterday after India claimed their seventh win against Pakistan in a World T20 match, Anil Kumble was full of praise for Rishabh Pant. The word Kumble used at the beginning to describe Pant was ‘brave’ as the left-hand batsman played too many risky shots that could have also ended up as wickets.

Rishabh Pant was not only brave but also lucky as Pakistan had missed several chances to get him out but they were unsuccessful. That said, Anil Kumble claimed that Pant was favored by his fortune because he was brave and wanted to help his team at all costs.

“He was brave. I mean there were opportunities that Pakistan missed. There were balls that landed in no man’s land. But that’s what I mean, fortune favors the brave and he took some really risky shots and came out and has been exceptional.” , Kumble said via ESPNcricinfo.

“I mean, from the moment he came back, it was wonderful to see him come back to active cricket and come to a world cup and literally take the game and he has been the best player so far for this Indian batting line-up,” Anil Kumble concluded.