Team India skipper Rishabh Pant spoke about taking away plenty of 'positives' from India's 2-2 series against South Africa in his post-match comments after India's series decider was washed out in Bengaluru, however, the Proteas also gave head coach Rahul Dravid plenty to ponder upon.
Perhaps the most worrisome fact will be that the skipper of the team, Pant could only score 58 runs in the five innings that led to some questions being raised about his place in the shortest format.
However, Dravid was very clear that Pant is going nowhere. Rishabh Pant is a "big" and "integral" part of the set-up heading into the T20 World Cup in Australia, insisted Dravid.
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Speaking in the post-match press conference, the 'Wall of India' as he is fondly called, said, "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."
Pant's is a high-risk game that comes with a price and the coach is ready to pay the price by looking at the bigger picture.
"In the process (of playing an attacking game), he might go wrong in a few games but he remains an integral part of our batting line-up with the power he has and the fact that he is a left-hander is important to us in the middle overs, he played some good knocks," he said.
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About his captaincy, Dravid felt that Pant did well considering that he led the side back in the series from 0-2 down.
"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 leader. It is too early to judge him and you don't want to do that after one series," Dravid was clear in his thought process.
Meanwhile, the Indian team will soon return to action against Ireland as the two-match T20I series is scheduled to kick off on June 26, Sunday.
With inputs from PTI
