Rishabh Pant's Batting Template Not Liked By Indian Team Management Member: Report's 'Open Secret' Claim
The Indian cricket team selection for the New Zealand ODI series will be a crucial one for Rishabh Pant
The Indian cricket team selection for the New Zealand ODI series will be a crucial one for Rishabh Pant. Several reports have predicted that the star wicketkeeper-batter will make way for Ishan Kishan for the three-ODI series against New Zealand, starting January 11. Pant started his ODI career in October 2018. Since then, he has played 31 ODIs, with the last one coming against Sri Lanka in August 2024. Rishabh Pant's form in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy has been patchy, with just one half-century in four matches. But if he is dropped for the upcoming New Zealand series without being given even one ODI game in the last 18 months, it could be deemed slightly harsh by the Ajit Agarkar-led committee.
The BCCI selectors will announce the squad for the series against the Black Caps on Saturday, and Pant's inclusion is the major talking point.
"It is an open secret that at least one member in the Indian team management doesn't exactly like Pant's high-risk, high-reward batting template and would like him to employ a more traditional way of batting," a report by news agency PTI stated.
"But dropping a second-choice glovesman without giving him a fair go could obviously lead to more questions being asked without tangible answers being provided," the report added.
In 2025, Pant didn't play a single ODI, although he was part of the Champions Trophy squad as well as the series against South Africa last month. While Ruturaj Gaikwad, a specialist opener, was tried at No. 4, Pant was left cooling his heels during all three games.
Pant has played only 31 ODIs since his debut in 2018. Call it bad luck coupled with his batting philosophy-he got consistent chances in two separate phases.
He played 11 games between June 30, 2019, and Jan 14, 2020, before COVID-19 intervened. His best phase came post-COVID when he played 15 ODIs between March 26, 2021, and Nov 30, 2022, before he met with a horrific car accident.
Incidentally, in this phase, he scored a ton, had two scores of 75-plus, and one 85 in the 15 innings.
But since his return in 2024 post-accident, he has played just a solitary ODI in Colombo, which incidentally was head coach Gautam Gambhir's first assignment.
It didn't help that Pant has only one significant score-70-in four Vijay Hazare Trophy games, while the flavour of the season, Ishan Kishan, hit 14 sixes in Jharkhand's opening game against Karnataka, batting in the middle order.
Even Dhruv Jurel has scored a 'Daddy Hundred' for Uttar Pradesh and was part of the ODI set-up during the last series.
However, the tracks on which Delhi played at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru can't exactly be called batting paradises, although that can't be an excuse for getting out in the 20s. But if one pauses and thinks about the impact, Pant still is a few notches above Jurel.
Three wicketkeepers in a squad of 15 looks like a luxury, and with KL Rahul firmly entrenched as the numero uno batter-keeper, it will be interesting to see if Kishan is picked at the expense of either Pant or Jurel when both are yet to get a game.
With PTI inputs
India Cricket Team
New Zealand Cricket Team
Rishabh Pant