Major Updates from Rishabh Pant's press conference ahead of ENG vs IND Lord's Test

On the eve of the third Test of the five-match series against England at Lord’s, India’s vice-captain, Rishabh Pant, delivered major updates on their planning. The series is currently poised at 1-1 after the visitors' incredible victory at Edgbaston, thanks to captain Shubman Gill’s 269 and 161 across two innings before Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj broke the home side’s back.

Pant revealed that the management is yet to decide India’s playing XI for the game ‘because the nature of the wicket keeps changing’ for which they will plan the combination accordingly. The southpaw also revealed that on flat wickets, ‘the batters will have to step up’ besides the knowledge of picking 20 wickets. ‘Everything’ was his answer when asked about what makes Jasprit Bumrah special.

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The Dukes balls are getting old quite rapidly, and the southpaw feels that the ‘gauge is smaller for the Dukes’ but they are happy to accept the rule. He added that ‘balls getting out of shape is a problem and not good for cricket.’ Besides having positive conversations with Gill and coach Gautam Gambhir, Pant is happy to see Jofra Archer back in the red-ball format.

Rishabh Pant gives a major update on the Lord’s surface

Undoubtedly, everyone is a fan of Pant’s stump mic conversations. He disclosed the secret that he had been going it since childhood, while his ‘coach advised to keep talking’ which he feels is quite important. Gill and Pant share a great bond even off the field, as the Delhi batter reckoned that ‘when two people trust each other, then things get better.’

Speaking on his responsibility for the team, Pant feels that it helps to level the game up, while he is satisfied to see Siraj and Akash Deep dismiss the batters by setting them up. In Edgbaston, the Bengal pacer went wide of the crease and targeted Joe Root’s stumps to get rid of the batter late on the fourth evening. It opened up the game for the victory.

The Dehradun-born is the third leading run-getter of the series so far with 342 runs in four innings at an average of 85.50 and a strike rate of 81.82. He felt that the Birmingham victory had given them the vital momentum. The biggest update from him came on the Lord’s surface, where he ruled out the ‘opposition’s plan’ and vowed to give their best.’