Rishabh Pant is stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, he is getting pummelled for his performances as both batter and captain of the eliminated Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), and on the other, his place in the Indian team appears to be slipping away. The management has already moved on from him in the ODI and T20I scheme of things, and after the rap on the knuckles he received from the chairman of selectors – the BCCI removing him as India’s vice-captain – a demotion in Test cricket hasn’t come at the right time either.
It is understandable why Pant suffered not one, but two brainfade moments – including a shocking F-bomb – with Ian Bishop last evening. Barely an hour before the toss, Pant got to know he was no longer Shubman Gill’s deputy, having been replaced by someone far more senior. Pant appears mentally worn down. 11 woeful matches in the IPL, the pressure of being the most expensive player in the tournament, struggles with the bat, and operating under the constant gaze of an owner whose history isn’t encouraging seem to have taken a heavy toll. The Afghanistan series could have offered Pant a welcome break from the IPL, allowing him to return to the format he loves most and is best suited for, but the squad announced turned sour.
For starters, Pant has been India’s best Test batter over the last four years, averaging higher than all his contemporaries. Put aside his legendary outing in the 2021 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Pant has been on an unprecedented run despite missing an entire year following a career-threatening road accident. Since 2022, Pant has scored 1885 runs in just 23 Tests at an average of 80.34, including five hundreds and 11 fifties. In terms of aggregate runs, he ranks fourth behind Yashasvi Jaiswal (2511), Shubman Gill (2285) and Ravindra Jadeja (1900). Then again, all three have played significantly more matches than Pant – 28, 30 and 32 respectively.
Secondly, purely in terms of impact, the BCCI has little to no replacement for him. The kind of role Pant performs in the lower middle order may not appear as challenging as Jaiswal facing the new ball in Australia or England, but batting at No. 6 comes with its own set of complications. When the entire team was struggling, Pant produced scores of 99, 60 and 64 even as New Zealand’s spinners ran India ragged in a 3-0 whitewash. Besides, with seven dismissals in the 90s, Pant only reinforces Gautam Gambhir’s ideology of prioritising team results over individual milestones.
Pant’s scary consistency
Pant’s consistency equally stands out. He has maintained remarkably high standards across conditions in Test matches. In his last seven Test series, Pant averaged 61.66 against Sri Lanka, 49.33 and 53.66 in two separate series against Bangladesh, 43.5 against New Zealand despite India’s home defeat, and 68.42 against England last year. The only truly underwhelming affair Pant endured came in Australia, where, barring Jaiswal and Nitish Reddy, almost every Indian batter had a tough time. Even in India’s most recent Test series against South Africa, where Pant averaged just 12.25, it felt more like a rare off series than a larger decline.
Pant’s captaincy has never found too many admirers, but if there is one thing nobody can question, it is his commitment. At a time when the Indian Test team lacks larger-than-life characters following the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, Pant brings energy and liveliness from behind the stumps. And if that is not enough, the man batted with a broken foot, for god’s sake, with his fifty helping India narrow the deficit and eventually draw the all-important Manchester Test. Pant was India’s fourth-highest run scorer with 479 runs in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, and had he not missed one match, the gap between him and the top run-getters could have been much smaller.
Show Pant some love
Cut him some slack. Because at this stage, the last thing Pant needs is to feel unwanted. While Ajit Agarkar has reiterated that Pant remains crucial to India’s Test plans, replacing him with a 34-year-old KL Rahul makes little sense. Gill, the captain, is not going anywhere unless something goes drastically wrong, and, if anything, Pant’s replacement should have been a much younger Jaiswal. Giving the role to Rahul not only sends out the wrong signal but also reflects a lack of trust in India’s younger crop.
Pant missed 2023 due to the multiple injuries he sustained on December 30, 2022. His road to recovery and return to top-flight cricket is the stuff of legends. Having already missed the 2023 World Cup, rest assured, Pant will fight tooth and nail for a place in India’s squad for the 2027 edition. However, he also knows that securing a place in the ODI side will not be easy, especially with Rahul and now Ishan Kishan in the mix. That is precisely why Pant cannot afford to feel even remotely sidelined in Tests. Communication remains key. Not the kind Pant seemed to receive from Gambhir Down Under, where he often looked lost in his approach. But the kind Rahul Dravid or Ravi Shastri would have offered. Because without it, Indian cricket risks causing long-term damage to one of its finest across generations.