Pant v Iyer v Samson: who’s the best – and why?
Winner: Rishabh Pant
Winner: Shreyas Iyer
Winner: Rishabh Pant – just
CricViz are cricket intelligence specialists
In recent years, the Indian white-ball side has been blessed with some of the most outrageously skilled batsmen in world cricket. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan form a phenomenal top three, and a rotating cast of top-class players make up the middle-order, the likes of Manish Pandey, Ajinkya Rahane and Hardik Pandya scrapping to be the best of an excellent bunch. This alone is enough to make India among the favourites for any limited-overs, including next year’s World Cup in England.
Yet terrifyingly for fans of other countries, there is another pool of talent just below that age-group. The cream of that generation born between 1995 and 1998 are a trio of very different, but equally thrilling batsmen – Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer and Sanju Samson.
Then there’s Pant, all ball-striking and unorthodoxy, and a glimpse into T20’s future. As the game evolves more and more towards the thrilling brutality of power-hitting, a greater number of players will come to resemble Pant, maybe not hitting 360 but scoring at a strike-rate somewhere near that. He’s the best of the lot, and arguably the best in the world in his age-group, but it’s the sense that he’s a man ahead of his time which makes him stand out most of all.
