Rishabh Pant was a difficult person to work with, former India fielding coach R Sridhar said on a podcast recently.
Pant made his India debut in a T20I against England in February 2017, and a year later played his first Test against the same opposition at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, but as Sridhar, head coach Ravi Shastri, and captain Virat Kohli accelerated India’s fielding revolution, managing Pant became a ‘challenge’.
Rishabh Pant was coming off a successful outing for India U19 in the Youth World Cup in Bangladesh and also a brilliant outing in IPL 2017, where he made his debut for Delhi Capitals. Pant was careless, even reckless at times, yet he stood by his unconventional but effective style. Pant, who had a rocky start as a goalkeeper, still had a long way to go.
R Sridhar remarked that modifying some of Pant’s approaches was critical for the Indian youngster’s development, but when the potential is young and there is a defined system in place, it is easier said than done.
“It’s a simple coaching philosophy. If they don’t learn the way you coach, coach the way they learn. A lot of times you say something and think the job is done, but if athletes are not picking it up, then you’ve not done your job. You’ve got to change your style and suit it according to the requirements of the athlete.
With Rishabh, this was an example because he was a young kid, a teenager, 20 years old. Just come after the Under-19 World Cup. He made his debut, but you know it was difficult for me to connect with him initially. It was a challenge because he had his ways, so you let it be. It took some time for us to build that trust and for that I had to change my style of approach to coaching a little bit and understand where he is coming from, what he wanted,” Sridhar said on ‘Anubhav Talks’.
Pant had a flying start with India in 2018, scoring a century in only his third Test and adding another ton a few months later in Australia during the 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The next 18 months were great fun with Rishabh Pant: R Sridhar
Despite being at the peak of his game with the bat, Rishabh Pant struggled with his wicketkeeping. He even lost his place in the XI in all forms, as the Indian team experimented with different options.
Sridhar noted that it took some time because he had to rely on a well-known coaching principle, but with its help, he and Pant were able to create a mutual understanding of mental processes.
“There’s another coaching theory. Give them what they want, till the time they take what you give. I started changing my style of coaching. Usually more is less, but with an athlete like Rishabh, less is more. At that level, at a very elite level, more often than not, less is more, especially when it comes to the technical side of it. They know; there are geniuses, they are champions.
I had to course-correct somewhere midway. I said no, with this boy, ‘less’ is the way to go about it. Then I made myself redundant and that is when the trick happened and we connected. The next 18 months were great fun with such a wonderful, exuberant, and energetic athlete. I am so happy that he is back and playing. It’s a better version; he is wiser,” Sridhar stated.
Rishabh Pant, who was out of cricket for more than a year and recently made his India comeback in T20 World Cup 2024, is expected to make his Test return against Bangladesh.
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