Rishabh Pant has not learnt from his previous dismissals: Sunil Gavaskar

• Pant made his debut as India’s skipper.
• Pant has been repeating his mistake again and again.
• He led IPL franchise Delhi Capitals to two playoffs under his captaincy.

Rishabh Pant remained “integral” to India’s plans, according to coach Rahul Dravid, despite questions over his batting and leadership after the Twenty20 series against South Africa concluded in a 2-2 tie on Sunday.

The 24-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman was making his debut as India’s captain, leading to rumors that he could one day succeed the 35-year-old Rohit Sharma as the regular captain.

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Pant managed scores of 29, 5, 6, and 17 throughout the series, with the fifth and final game on Sunday being washed out. India lost the first two games of the series.

“When you are in the middle overs and you are asking people to play a slightly more attacking brand of cricket, sometimes it’s hard to judge on two or three games,” Dravid said.

“He remains an integral part of our batting line-up. The fact that he is a left-hander is very important to us in the middle overs.

“He would like to have scored more runs but it’s not that concerning. Certainly, he is a very big part of our plans going forward in the next few months.”

Pant was caught attempting to retrieve the ball from wide outside off stump in each of his four innings, causing batting legend Sunil Gavaskar to declare on television that Pant “hasn’t learned” from his previous dismissals and “keeps going for it.”

“He can’t throw enough muscle on that. He has got to stop looking to go aerial that far outside the off-stump.”

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Former India opener Wasim Jaffer said Pant may find it hard to keep his spot after Dinesh Karthik scored 92 runs in the series, including a match-winning 55.

“I think DK has overlapped Rishabh Pant at least at the moment. I can’t say about the future, but at the moment you would pick DK any time in front of Rishabh Pant,” Jaffer said.

Dravid claimed the youthful skipper would learn from India’s first two losses.

“I think he is a young captain, he is learning all the time, he is growing as a leader, he is getting more and more opportunities. It’s again too early to judge him,” said Dravid.

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Pant led Delhi Capitals to the IPL playoffs in two seasons. He will head to England to join Rohit’s team for a rescheduled Test starting July 1 in Birmingham.