Gautam Gambhir gives Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer 'Capital' advice for ODI batting

The Indian cricket team suffered an embarrassing 8-wicket defeat to West Indies in the first ODI on Sunday. The Men in Blue were outplayed by the visitors, who had Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer to thank, as they both scored centuries. While a majority of Indian top-order batsmen failed to perform, it was the young duo of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant who turned out to be the most impressive with their half-centuries.

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Gautam Gambhir's words of wisdom for Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer

Former India opener and the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup winner, Gautam Gambhir has made his opinions about the game much clearer and out in the open whether it is on social media or as a television pundit. Co-incidentally, Iyer and Pant both are part of the Delhi Capitals in the IPL, which is Gambhir's hometown franchise. Recently, multiple Indian media reports claimed that Gambhir had bought a Rs. 100 crore stake with the Capitals, which is a 10% minority stake as per the team's valuation.

As a result, it is perhaps fitting that Gambhir wishes nothing but the best for the young, dynamic duo. Interestingly, he had the same advice for both of them after their outing in the last game against the West Indies. Talking to the official broadcaster, Gambhir wants Iyer and Pant to switch their focus into scoring more hundreds rather than being content with scores between the 50s and 70s.

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Gambhir astutely observed that both the batsmen have fallen for that trap too often in limited-overs cricket for India, which could hold them back in the future. To become 'exceptional' middle-order batsmen and rated in the same breadth as the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni and KL Rahul, the former southpaw insisted that converting fifties into hundreds is a must for the duo and art which they must learn to master. The former India opener scored 20 international hundreds across formats and 63 of them in first-class cricket. With Gambhir likely to be more around Iyer and Pant courtesy the IPL and his media commitments, Iyer and Pant could well be groomed into much more refined batsmen sooner than expected in the future in all formats of the game.

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