India vs South Africa: Rathour asks Rishabh Pant to be careful; backs Rohit Sharma to play all formats

1. On Rishabh Pant

"As far as Rishabh is concerned, he is a phenomenal player, he just needs to sort out his gameplan, needs to bring in a little bit of discipline in his cricket," said Rathour on eve the second T20 against South Africa. "All the young players need to understand that there is a fine line between fearless cricket and careless cricket. What the team management is asking from them is fearless cricket, having clear gameplans and playing with intent but at the same time, you can't be careless. I am sure they are smart enough to understand that," he said.

"We want Pant to play all his shots. That is what makes him special, he is an impact player but at the same time you can't be careless. I don't think it is a massive issue. The team will be backing them fully," he said.

2. On Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey

"Those two are very fine cricketers who have done really well in domestic cricket. Shreyas has got a good start (in ODIs against the West Indies). Manish has done well in the past and made a comeback after performing consistently in domestic cricket. I am confident they will come good, they just need to be more consistent," he said.

3. On Rohit Sharma

"I think he is too good a player to not be playing in any team. Everybody in the side echoes this opinion. He is a wonderful opening batsman in the limited-overs format, so there is no reason why he cannot be successful in Test matches. If he gets his gameplan right, he can be a great asset to the team," Rathour told reporters.

4. On the road to ICC T20 World Cup

India have begun their preparations for the T20 World Cup in Australia next year and there is a significant shift in the way they will approach their batting in the shortest format. Kohli wants the team to bat deep, increasing the expectations from spin bowling all-rounders Krunal Pandya and Washington Sundar.

"We are fortunate to have so many all-rounders in this T20 team. Most of them can bat. In the past, we did not take T20s seriously but now we are preparing for the World Cup. These 20-21 games are very important," he said.