Rishabh Pant refutes claims of heavy workload, says 'happy to finish games for India'

Rishabh Pant, India's first-choice wicket-keeper has opened up about the workload and said he has nothing much to complain about and pointed out that the management has given him offs and have rested him for the India vs New Zealand Tests. Speaking to Star Sports, the wicket-keeper batter also added that it was his dream as a kid to win matches for India and he's happy to be able to finish matches for the country.

"As a kid, I always dreamt of winning matches for India in any situation. I am ready to do whatever the team needs me to do. I am happy to finish the match for the team. I can't be complaining (about the workload) but the team management has given me offs from the next two Test matches. Hopefully, I can recover and do well in South Africa." he said.

Rishabh Pant also said that the team sat down after the World Cup to discuss a few areas of concern, and have come strongly at the ongoing IND vs NZ T20I series. "After the T20 World Cup, everyone's thinking that in what areas we can improve. As a group, we have been talking about that a lot. We had to improve in the middle overs. We have ticked a few boxes. It's going really well for us."

IND vs NZ: India’s Test squad for the New Zealand series

Ajinkya Rahane (captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), KS Bharat (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Virat Kohli (only for the second Test, will lead the side)

India vs New Zealand: Men In Blue sets defendable target for Black Caps

As far as the ongoing T20 match between India and New Zealand is concerned, India won the toss and elected to bat first and have set a defendable target of 184. Among the batters, Rohit Sharma's fifty (66 from 31 balls) along with quick small cameos from Deepak Chahar and Harshal Patel helped India in reaching the target. Among the bowlers, Mitchell Santner had a great day at the office picking up three wickets for 27 and got little to no assistance from the other bowlers.

Image: BCCI