Ashwin hails Pant for "one of the best defences in world cricket"

Pant had an underwhelming Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against Australia away from home recently. While he made headlines for his poor shot-making and throwing his wicket away till the fourth Test, the final match saw him get praised for displaying two shades of cricket with knocks of 40 in 98 balls and then a stroke-filled 33-ball 61. At Melbourne during the fourth Test, Pant had also played a knock of 30 in 104 balls during a run-chase of 340 runs, showing great restraint.

Speaking on his Youtube Channel, Ashwin said that Pant rarely gets out while defending the ball and even in nets, he does not get out via leg-before-wicket and rarely misses to middle the ball.

"Pant rarely gets out playing a defence. He has got one of the best defences in world cricket. Defence has become a challenging aspect, he has the best defence with a soft hand. I have bowled to him a lot in the nets, he has not gotten out, he doesn't get an edge, he does not get LBW, he has the best defence. I have tried telling it to him. One opinion about Rishabh was that he plays a lot of shots, he has to fight it out in Test cricket," said the former cricketer.

During the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Pant made 255 runs in five matches and nine innings at an average of 28.33, and a strike rate of 59.02, with one half-century. He was the sixth-highest run-getter in the series.

India lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 1-3, succumbing to a six-wicket defeat in the fifth and final Test at Sydney after setting Australia a target of 162 runs. With this loss, India is officially out of contention for the ICC World Test Championship final at Lord's in June next year, as Australia and South Africa have sealed their places. (ANI)