Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has said Rishabh Pant has the potential to build a long India career and likened the young wicket-keeper batsman to the legendary Adam Glichrist.

Pant scored a stylish 159* in the ongoing Sydney Test against Australia to put India in a position of strength, and on the brink of a historic series win. Pant’s innings broke many an Indian record.

Ponting, who has worked with the 21-year-old India keeper-batsman Pant in the IPL, was full of praise for the Sydney centurion.

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“He’s a real talent and an incredibly good ball striker. He’s got a really good game sense as well,” Ponting told cricket.com.au in a chat.

“He’s already now into his second Test match hundred and a couple of 90s to go with it. Look, he is someone who could play a lot of cricket for India in all three formats. He is only 21 and into his ninth Test, so he could be around for a long time.”

Pant has already set the record for becoming the first Indian wicket-keeper to score Test centuries in England and Australia and on his first tour Down Under, has managed to score more runs than MS Dhoni did in three tours combined.

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“He has got to do a bit of work on his keeping, and [with time] he’ll become a better cricketer but he’ll also become a better batsman. We talk about MS Dhoni all the time and his impact on Indian cricket. [Dhoni] played a lot of Tests for India but made only six Test hundreds. This kid will make a lot more Test hundreds than that,” he added.

“We talk about him in the commentary box and the way that he bats, he is sort of like another Adam Gilchrist.”