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Ahead of the fourth Test against Australia at Melbourne, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma backed the wicketkeeper-batter to score big in the remainder of the series, saying that the youngster has a lot of expectations from himself and is working hard on his game.
As the series stays level at 1-1 heading into Melbourne, the role of Rishabh to throw a counter-attack on Aussies becomes even more important, given his past success in Australia and in Tests in general. After a fine home season, which saw him score a century on his comeback Test match following a life-threatening road accident, Pant has experienced a quiet outing in Australia with just 96 runs in five innings at an average of 19.20 and best score of 37. Pant enjoys a fine record in Australia, having made 720 runs in 10 Tests at an average of 48.00, with a century and two fifties in 17 innings and best score of 159*. Be it his knock of 159 during the 2018 tour or match-winning, series-sealing 89* at Brisbane, some of Pant's best performances have come Down Under. During the pre-match presser, the Indian skipper said that there is no pressure on Pant. "No, there is no pressure. He has played only two or three test matches here. He has been in good form recently. He has made good runs in India. He has a good record in Australia," the skipper said. Rohit said that it is not good to judge after two-three matches and rather players like Pant, Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal should not be given much "overcomplicated" feedback since they know what to do. "Our job here is to explain to them and tell them small things like match awareness, match situation, we talk to them about these things. I do not think we have to complicate their plans and thought process. Rishabh Pant knows what his expectations are. He has a lot of expectations He has a lot of expectations from himself. He is working hard in his game. I think he will do well in these two matches," concluded Rohit. In eight Tests of the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25, Pant has made 518 runs at an average of 37.00 and a strike rate of almost 80, with a century and three fifties in 15 innings and the best score of 109. India's squad for fourth and fifth Tests: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Devdutt Padikkal, Tanush Kotian. (ANI)
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