Rishabh Pant will look to contribute in Qualifier 2 vs Kolkata Knight Riders.© BCCI/IPL
Former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson has lavished praise on the Delhi Capitals (DC) skipper Rishabh Pant and given him advice before Qualifier 2 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 on Wednesday. “My advice to Rishabh Pant is to play with freedom, have that air of arrogance and confidence – that he does when he’s at his best like he did in that last game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), those one-handed sixes,” said Watson.
“He’s absolutely crazy, the skills that he’s got, and for me, the advice would be to go out and have that confidence. Don’t allow the situations, the leaderships to dictate how you play. You go out and play with freedom – take the game on,” he added.
Watson called Pant a ”match winner” and said that he can take away any match from the opposition.
“If you feel that you can line up a bowler, then you fully commit to it and take him on – because he is a match-winner. He can take the game away from the opposition very quickly – and everyone wants to see that, the team wants to see that and him as a leader wants to see that as well,” said Watson.
The 40-years-old also praised the top batting order of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
“KKR really turned things around since Shubman Gill and Iyer (Venkatesh) have started opening the batting and really taking on the game. You can see a big shift from the first leg of the IPL in India to the one in the UAE,” said Watson.
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“The intensity that they showed from ball one was very obvious and they are able to capitalize on it in the first six overs and because Tripathi (Rahul) in particular has been so good in middle overs, that it has set up a platform for KKR to turn things around,” he added.
KKR and DC will be taking on each other on Wednesday for a place in the finals of IPL 2021 against CSK.
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