'He is a little overweight': Shoaib Akhtar's quirky take on India star

Team India's stupendous performance in England earned praises from many former cricketers. Rohit Sharma-led side managed to beat England both in ODI and T20I series. Like every series, a few players shone under tremendous pressure to take India home. While, Hardik Pandya contributed magnificently both with bat and ball, it was India's young wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant who stole the show with his fearless approach and produced another remarkable innings (125*) in the ODI series finals to defeat England 2-1.

From Sachin Tendulkar to Sourav Ganguly, many former greats of the game showered praise on Pant. Now, former Pakistan pacer and one of the greatest fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar has also hailed the recent exploits of Pant. But, the legendary pacer also has an interesting advice for the swashbuckling batter.

While speaking on his YouTube channel, the 'Rawalpindi Express’ as Akthar fondly called, said that Pant needs to take care of his weight.


“He is a little overweight. I hope he takes care of that. Because India's market is big. He's good-looking. He can emerge as a model, earn in crores. Because whenever a person becomes a star in India, a lot of investment is made on them,” asserted Shoaib Akhtar.

“He has the cut shot, pull shot, reverse sweep.. he isn't afraid. He won the match in Australia, he won the match here (in England) and took India to a series victory,” the former great added.

While analysing Pant's game, Akhtar said that the left-hander has the unique ability to change gears at any stage of the game to accelerate scoring and that puts a lot of pressure on the opposition.

“The talent he has, he will put oppositions in a lot of trouble. Against England, he adopted a calculated approach while pacing the innings, and then turn ruthless. He can accelerate whenever he want. In times to come, Rishabh Pant is going to be a superstar. The only one can who can stop him is Pant himself," Akhtar added.