CHENNAI: After a poor Indian Premier League season with the bat and as Lucknow Super Giants skipper Rishabh Pant has suffered another blow. India's first-choice keeper-batter is now dropped from both the white-ball formats.
On Tuesday, as the BCCI announced the squad for the three-match ODI series, Pant has lost his place in the 50-over format with Ishan Kishan replacing the senior batter. Already one of the greatest keeper-batters to have played for India in Test cricket, the 28-year-old's struggles to crack the white-ball format remains a mystery.
Pant has been around India's white-ball set up since 2017, but has never been able to nail the spot in both T20Is and ODIs. He represented India 31 times in ODIs between 2018-2024 and 76 times in T20Is between 2017-2024 but with sub-optimal returns. His ODI average of 35.7 is the poorest among the six designated keepers India have played since the beginning of 2017. In the same period, his T20I record (23.71 average)as keeper is only better than Jitesh Sharma (15 games) and Dhruv Jurel (two games). His T20I strike rate of 129.01 is easily the worst, barring Jurel in this list.
Pant's decline in white-ball is not a sudden phenomenon. It is one of the reasons why he has played only one ODI since 2024. It is also why he has been completely dropped from the T20I set up for a while now. At a time when the T20 game is rapidly changing, especially in India, Pant has struggled to keep up and deliver consistently.
The interesting aspect, however, is that for someone who was regarded as ahead of his time for his audacious range and strokeplay when he broke into the IPL as a teenager, Pant has not been able to maintain the consistency or hitting-ability over the years in white-ball cricket with KL Rahul taking over the duties in ODIs. In the shortest format, Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson have become regulars, delivering consistently even during the T20 World Cup.
Which is why, despite being a part of the ODI squad in recent times, Pant has not been featured in any games. He went back to Vijay Hazare Trophy and scored 212 runs in six innings at 42.4 average as Delhi skipper, but that was not enough to break the door open. They have also removed him as Test vice-captain, hoping that it would allow him to concentrate more on his batting. "Obviously, Rishabh was vice-captain and we want him to be the best batter that he can be and that he has always been in Test cricket. So, no, there is no other reason," chief selector Ajit Agarkar said on Tuesday. "Rishabh is an incredible Test player. Obviously, he is not part of the ODI squad at the moment. We want him to become the best Test player that he has always been. I don’t think there is any concern with his spot in the Test team. As far as ODI cricket is concerned, at this point, we have gone with two different options," he added.
The way forward for Pant, as things stand, could be similar to that of Kishan. The Jharkhand keeper-batter was left out of India set up two years ago, but he went back to domestic cricket, worked his way up and broke the door open in the shortest format with a stellar title-winning run in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The ball is now in Pant's court. Can he put his head down and perform well enough to convince the selectors? Only time will tell.
