He might be constantly compared to MS Dhoni on the field and expectations might be high, but off the field Rishabh Pant shares a close bond with the former Indian captain. On the occasion of Christmas, the young wicket-keeper batsman was photographed celebrating Christmas with MS Dhoni and his friends in Dubai.

An MS Dhoni fan account shared a video and a number of pictures in which Pant can be seen enjoying his outing with Jharkhand player.

Rishabh Pant has already been earmarked to be MS Dhoni’s successor across all the formats but inconsistent performances have seen him lose his spot to Wriddhiman Saha in Tests. However, he found some of the groove back in the West Indies series with the bat, but there is a lot to be desired as far as his wicket-keeping skills are concerned. This was highlighted by MSK Prasad, the chief selector after he picked India’s squads for the T20I and ODI series against Sri Lanka and Australia.

“Pant needs to improve his keeping skills. We will have him work under a specialist wicket-keeping coach,” Prasad told reporters here after the Indian team selection for the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka and Australia.

He has already found support from captain Kohli who even asked the crowd to not start chanting MS Dhoni’s name at every small mistake Pant commits on the field.

“We certainly believe in Rishabh’s ability. When you say it’s the player’s responsibility to work hard, perform and do all those things, I agree. But, I think it’s the collective responsibility of everyone around as well to give that player some space to do so as well. If he misses a chance or something, people can’t shout MS is in the stadium,” Kohli said.