Hemang Badani Interview: Rishabh Pant should re-invent himself in T20s; Virat Kohli's hunger for runs is back

New Delhi, Dec 5: Former India all-rounder Hemang Badani has backed underfire India wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant as a good ODI batter and claimed that fans, as well as critics, often fail to distinguish between T20I and ODI performance and paint Pant as a below average batter in white-ball format.

While interacting with a select media interaction organised with Sony Sports Network - the official broadcasters of India's tour of Bangladesh - Badani said Pant has done reasonably well in the ODIs but the 25-year-old certainly needs to go back to the drawing board and reinvent his T20 skills.

The 46-year-old - who has played 4 Tests and 40 ODIs - also threw light on why top Indian batters are not contributing as part-time bowlers and providing the skipper with some options of having more all-rounders in the ranks.

The former Tamil Nadu and Vidarbha cricketer claimed that in during his playing days even the top batters in the Indian side were good bowlers because they used to consistently bowl in the nets. Hence, the team didn't really require the need of playing a genuine all-rounder back in the day.

Excerpts from Hemang Badani Interview:

Question: Rishabh Pant looks like an accomplished batter in Test but he hasn't done justice to the vast amount of talent he has in the limited-overs format. What's your take on this?

Answer: My simple take on this is that he is a no-brainer in Tests let's keep that aside. In T20s, yes, his numbers don't respect the potential and the talent he has. Especially, what we expect of him.

In the ODIs, he hasn't done that badly in the format. In the New Zealand series, yes he failed to deliver. But most of us end up clubbing T20 and if a player does badly in one format we end up claiming 'Oh his numbers are bad in the white ball format'. But Pant has done well in the ODIs. In the last ODI series he played, he slammed a century, and we are talking about a knock which was 3-4 innings prior to the Bangladesh series. So, I don't think he's done badly in the ODIs, he did fail in New Zealand but we end up clubbing his performances of T20Is.

Question: Do you think he deserves a place in the T20 side with the performances he's had?

Answer: He has the skills and talent but that isn't enough. I genuinely believe he's a good T20 player but there's a little bit of structure lacking with the way he's approaching his innings. There's no debating that he's a serious T20 player but the way he's approaching (his game), there's a big gap between his potential, his skills and his delivering. And that to me is something he needs to work on. Even if it is a T20 format, you can't hit all ten balls for a maximum. You still have to be prudent about which ball to hit, and which bowler are you targetting. Those are things which Rishabh needs to work on.

Question: Why are the Indian batters not rolling their arms and providing the option of a decent part-time bowler to the skipper?

Answer: This takes me to the time when we used to play. Sachin, Viru, Dada, even myself. we all used to bowl. It makes a massive difference. But you cannot produce an all-rounder overnight. You have to be a genuinely good all-rounder to play. Look at the English side, they have a good list of all-rounders in the side. If you look at England, even Adil Rashid, for me, is an all-rounder.

You can't go to the factories and manufacture all-rounders, do you? You have to get down to the domestic circuit and see if we have all-rounders of quality there. Yes, there are all-rounders but do they have the quality to excel at the highest level? And if we do, then take that player forward. You have a Jadeja, an Axar Patel and a Hardik Pandya in the current set-up.

Why does Hardik become such an important player for us, that's because he has the pedigree. You would hope that you have more players like him. However, in the current setup, there are no batters who can bowl.

During our playing days, we never had these extra net bowlers, or side-arm bowlers, etc. So we used to bowl. It all boils down to the fact that how often a bowler bowls in the nets session and how many sets he bowls in the nets because he also has to remain fresh for the game. So, what we used to do is, that Sachin (Tendulkar), Yuvi (Yuvraj Singh), Viru (Virender Sehwag) and I would take up the responsibility of bowling a couple of sets.

So, invariably our skills kept improving. But in today's day and age, we have so many net bowlers and other support staff, and I am not saying it's a bad thing. But yes, it does diminish the talent of your part-time bowlers because they're not practising in the nets.

Question: Will the elusive Test hundred come from Virat Kohli's willow in Bangladesh?

Answer: The player I am going to look forward to in Bangladesh is Virat Kohli. Trust me he's back, he's hungry and he'll make up for the lost time. So yes, we can expect it to happen.