India vs South Africa 5th T20: Rishabh Pant is overweight and bulky, former Pakistan cricketer slams India captain

India vs South Africa 5th T20: Former Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria who has pointed out weaknesses in Rishabh Pant's wicketkeeping skills

Source: Twitter

India captrain in the ongoing South Africa T20 series Rishabh Pant is struggling for runs currently. With a series of low scores in the five-match series, Pant has been criticised by former cricketers and experts. Sunil Gavaskar feels that Pant is not learning from his mistakes and has issus playing the ball outside the off stump line as he tends to lose his balance. Joining the chorus of criticism is former Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria who has pointed out weaknesses in his wicketkeeping skills now. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Kaneria slammed fitness of Pant and said that he is overweight and his bulky body does not allow him to squat well which eventually affects his keeping. 

"I want to talk about Pant's wicketkeeping. I've noticed one thing – he doesn't squat lower and sit on his toes when a fast bowler is bowling. Seems like he is overweight and being bulky doesn't give him that much time to come up quickly. It raises concern over his fitness. Is he 100 per cent fit? But when it comes to his captain, bowlers and batters including Hardik and Karthik have supported him well. Pant also has a chance to become the first captain to win a T20 series against South Africa," Kaneria said.

Rajkot __ Bengaluru

Excitement levels _ for the final @Paytm #INDvSA T20I. _ _#TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/7DirHt49sG — BCCI (@BCCI) June 19, 2022

At the same time, Kaneria was all praise for India's 'finishers' Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik. He said that Karthik and Pandya were the reason why India reached 169 after struggling at the start. He added that it was Karthik's day and that he used his ability to sweep rather well and that h batted with maturity. He also said that Hardik showed a lot of maturity with the bat, after starting cautiously, he produced big shots in the end, playing a gem of an innings.