Bengaluru: Head Coach Rahul Dravid said it is too early to judge Rishabh Pant's captaincy and praised him for giving India a chance to win the 5-match T20I series against South Africa after being down 0-2.
"To bring a team back from 0-2 down and to level it at 2-2 and give us a chance to win was good. Captaincy is not about wins and losses only. He (Pant) is a young captain, growing as a leader. It is too early to judge him and you don't want to do that after one series," he told reporters in the post-match press conference.
"It was nice to see he has got opportunities to lead, keep and bat. He had a lot of load on him but gained from that experience and credit to him for ensuring that we went from 0-2 down to 2-2," Dravid said.
Commenting on Pant's dismal batting performance in T20I series against South Africa, he said the Indian wicket-keeper is a big and an integral part of the team going into the T20 World Cup in Australia.
Pant's batting has come in for criticism for he has only managed 58 runs in five innings, giving media a chance to speculate about his place in T20Is.
"Personally, he would have liked to score a few more runs but it is not concerning him. Certainly, he is a very big part of our plans going ahead in the next few months," he said.
Dravid also said that it is very hard to judge Pant based on three odd games, considering his impressive show in the IPL where he had a staggering strike-rate of 158 plus after getting 340 runs for Delhi Capitals.
"I don't want to be critical. We need people to play a slightly attacking brand of cricket in the middle overs to take the game on a little more. Sometimes it is very hard to judge it based on two or three games," he said.
Being an attacking batsman, Pant may go wrong in a few games but he remains an integral part of India's batting lineup with the power he has and being a left-hander is an added advantage in middle overs, Dravid said. (UNI)
