It wasn’t so long ago that Rishabh Pant was irreplaceable in the Indian scheme of things. But even as we write this, he is already not in the mix for India’s tour of Ireland.
That in itself may not result in the clanging of alarm bells for the wicketkeeper-batter, but to move from being captain to not being in the squad at all may be fashionable in Indian cricket off late, this instance definitely has to do with Pant’s repeated failures as a batter during the South Africa series, and the need for both the player and the Indian management to re-assess his approach, or even his T20 International utility.
There never was any doubt that Pant can hit the cricket ball hard and long. He has shown this on all levels and at times with telling effectiveness, where his has decimated the best of attacks.
When he appeared on the international scene, Pant was promoted the next best thing for India, and as a future captain.
Unfortunately for the Delhi player, somehow this combination of being captain, wicketkeeper and also one of the premier batters in the side isn’t working for him. This was evident during the IPL, as it is now, in the South Africa series.
It was a different thing if he was getting out to some outstanding bowling. Or maybe he is, since South Africa have him figured out in no uncertain terms. The problem is that even Pant knows where the problem is, but he is trying to conquer it with arrogance instead of humility.
Also Read: Rishabh Pant not a certainty for me in T20Is, says Wasim Jaffer
Thrice in as many matches, and twice to Keshav Maharaj, Pant has fallen pretty much to the same plan — they will keep the ball wide outside Pant’s off-stump, and he will play that extravagant slash, and get caught.
Now, the problem here is that Pant simply cannot, or refuses to, let go of that shot. He tried the same shot earlier against Dwaine Pretorius in Rajkot on Friday well before he was finally snared at deep backward-point off Maharaj, but Pant didn’t learn anything.
It isn’t a sign of weakness for a batter to acknowledge that his shortcomings have been exposed, and the best way out of it is to get rid of it once and for all. But Pant wants to dominate and prove to all and sundry that this isn’t the case. Either that, or he has a permanent brain freeze about that slash outside the off-stump.
Either way, if the South Africans have figured him out (and executed it with such simplicity and accuracy) others sides will have taken note. In this year of the ICC T20 World Cup, that is definitely not a good sign for Pant.
Which brings us to the question of whether he irreplaceable in the Indian T20 International squad. As of now, the answer is a definite no.
The Indian XI in the current series against South Africa has a strange coincidence of having three wicketkeepers. Among them, Ishan Kishan is earning his stripes at the top of the order while Dinesh Karthik has almost cemented himself as a regular in the lower middle-order. Both have way better conversion rates than Pant now and aren’t any worse as wicketkeepers.
Also Read: Ashish Nehra says Rishabh Pant should focus more on his form than where he bats
Then, KL Rahul, originally supposed to lead this side but now out for a long time with injury, is eventually expected to return, hopefully before the World Cup, so we’ll have to make place for him. As of now, few in this XI have given more reason to be replaced than Pant.
Not a happy picture for the captain of this team, who won’t be leading in Ireland. He may well be back in business in the Test against England, as well he merits to, but whether he should or would be continued with in the limited-overs series to follow, especially the T20Is, remains to be seen. As of now, the jury seems to be firmly against him, definitely on the T20 front.
Rishabh Pant was given a long rope as India’s next best thing, but his sustained inability to cut out the unnecessary and ugly parts of his game have frayed that rope to within an inch of coming apart. Already there is a lot of noise beginning to rise about this, and sadly for the batter, he hasn’t either applied himself to the job, or he simply isn’t able to do so mentally.
Either way, this is not a pretty sight and surely no one knows it more than the batter himself. But that doesn’t seem to make any difference in the middle, and that is where it all stands brutally exposed.
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