Rishabh Pant’s performances in the IPL for Delhi Capitals over the last couple of years have certainly been impressive. But considering how he has fared in international cricket since the tour of Australia last season, they have been close to inspirational.

The impact of his batting in Australia as well as when India hosted England in the early part of this year not just made Pant an automatic choice in the Indian team across all formats, but also convinced the Capitals to appoint him captain when Shreyas Iyer was injured before IPL 2021 got underway. And the wicketkeeper-batsman will be continuing to lead the Capitals though Shreyas is back and available for selection.

Captain Pant, however, doesn’t wish to concentrate much on how or whether life has changed for him in the past one year. “As a player, I don’t think about these things too much,” he said in a virtual media conference alongside head coach Ricky Ponting on the eve of the Capitals’ clash versus Sunrisers Hyderabad in Dubai.

Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant at nets. Twitter

“Whatever opportunity I get in cricket, I try to make the most of it. Every day is a new day in cricket, you learn from your mistakes and you try to keep on improving. That’s what we look to do: learn from our mistakes after identifying them and move on, and again keep learning.”

Acknowledging that the skipper would play a big role in the Capitals’ endeavour to go a step further this time and win their maiden IPL crown this time, Ponting emphasised Pant’s growth in terms of maturity.

“I think Rishabh’s level of maturity over the last couple of seasons has really just gone through the roof. What he has done at the international stage for the last 18 months or so has been nothing short of sensational. I can see how much his game has developed and how much he wanted to be in every Indian team, whether it’s the Test, ODI or T20I teams.

“Now he is in all three formats and it’s going to take a very good player to knock him out of one those positions in the Indian team,” the head coach said.

“Even with his leadership in Delhi Capitals, when he was not the captain, he was an exceptional vice-captain. And as captain, he has done a terrific job so far.”

A believer of keeping “a light environment” in the camp, Pant, as captain, focuses on respecting and treating everyone in the team equally. “If you respect everyone in the squad, special things happen. Your team is always standing by you on each and every occasion,” the 23-year-old said.

Trust in Stoinis

Enterprising all-rounder Marcus Stoinis is another player the Capitals will look to rely

on against the Kane Williamsons and David Warners on Wednesday.

“Stoinis has the talent to be a great all-rounder in world cricket, especially with the white ball. We’ve got a lot of finishing power with (Shimron) Hetmyer, Stoinis and Rishabh, which makes our batting line-up really strong and deep,” Ponting stressed.

The Capitals will go atop the table if they beat the Sunrisers, who may bring yorker-specialist T. Natarajan back in the XI. “The guys are in a good space, though we still have work to do,” said pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada.

It would also be interesting to see if the Capitals include off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who’s in the India squad for the T20 World Cup, in their XI.

Today’s matches

⚫ Delhi Capitals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, Dubai (7.30pm IST)