Rishabh Pant Reminisces Early Days As Cricketer, Recalls Late Coach's Advice

Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant used to mostly play lofted shots as an opener and was encouraged by late coach Tarak Singh to "master his defence". Pant, who recently won the ICC Champions Trophy with India and will be in action for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 has spoken fondly about the role of Singh in his cricketing career. The most expensive IPL player ever at Rs 27 crores, will be captaining the team which will kickstart its campaign against Delhi Capitals (DC) at Visakhapatnam from March 24 onwards.

Speaking on JioHotstar, Pant talked about Tarak's role in shaping his defence and how his father used to encourage him to play against senior players.

"When I started playing after moving from Roorkee, I mostly played lofted shots--almost 80 per cent of the time. I did not think about playing along the ground because I used to open the innings. My father always said that playing against your age group is normal, but if you want to improve in cricket, you must compete with older players. So, from a young age, he pushed me to participate in senior tournaments. Even when I was 10 or 11, I played in open tournaments," recalled Pant.

"When I joined Tarak Sir, he used to get really angry. He had one rule--'You must learn defense first. If you master defence, you will master everything else.' He believed I already knew how to hit big shots, so he wanted me to learn how to defend. I used to keep an eye on him while batting. If he was watching, I would play proper defence, playing drives and textbook shots. But the moment I saw him looking away, I would go back to playing my natural attacking game," he added.

On what made him play attacking shots, Pant said that when he was