Sitanshu Kotak on Pant’s cricket awareness, saying he likes to talk about the game, but not when he’s batting.
India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak shared an insight into the thinking side of India’s maverick keeper-batter.
India’s batting coach, Sitanshu Kotak, discussed this aspect of Pant and how much of a thinker he is when batting two days prior to the third Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy Test at Lord’s. Kotak was questioned about the significance of batting partners avoiding conversation with Pant.
“Rishabh actually talks a lot about what he does, when he does [it], why he does [it],” Kotak said. “To me, he’s spoken, but he’s someone who doesn’t like talking too much during his innings because he feels that that changes his mindset, and he takes the wrong decision. That’s only when he’s batting.
“Apart from that, he talks about other batters also, about himself also, and he does [properly plan] what he wants to do because it’s not so easy to score Test hundreds or not so easy to be successful at this level without having any planning.”
Although Pant’s actions may appear arbitrary, Kotak implied that each one is the result of careful consideration and preparation. Although Kotak was pleased to have a maverick like Pant in the lineup, he generally insisted that the hitters not be overly eager to score runs, which may have gotten ingrained after playing on pitches that were very bowling-friendly in recent years, as India has done.
“If a batter thinks there is a lot of movement in the pitch, and if there is [half] an opportunity I have to score boundaries because there is a good ball coming [anyway], that is a bad mindset for red-ball cricket,” Kotak said. “Anyway, they possess so much skill because of white-ball cricket that they can convert anything in the slot into fours and sixes. They don’t have to really think that I want to hit a boundary.”