Now Reading: Rishabh Pant’s form slump leaves his Test future uncertain
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Rishabh Pant’s form slump leaves his Test future uncertain
Rishabh Pant is at a crossroads after a string of low scores, including a dismissal for two runs off five balls in India's only practice game against a Sri Lanka Cricket XI…
The Story in Brief
Rishabh Pant is at a crossroads after a string of low scores, including a dismissal for two runs off five balls in India's only practice game against a Sri Lanka Cricket XI in Colombo. The left-handed wicketkeeper-batter attempted an extravagant aerial drive off his fifth delivery and was caught at long-off, raising questions about his shot selection.
The 27-year-old recently lost the Test vice-captaincy, which he had taken on under Shubman Gill's captaincy during India's tour of England last year. The Hindu reports that successive coaches from Ravi Shastri to Gautam Gambhir have given Pant licence to play his natural game but with a rider to be more selective and game-aware. Pant has completed a decade in Indian colours but has had an eminently forgettable last few months.
The Indian Opinion
The pantomime around Rishabh Pant's shot selection ignores a harder truth: Indian cricket needs his risk-taking far more than it needs another cautious accumulator. The same voices calling him reckless now cheered his twin hundreds in England last year. What has changed? Not his method, just his results. The real test is not whether Pant can rein himself in, but whether the team management can live with the occasional 5-ball 2 for the chance of a match-winning 150. Will Gambhir still back Pant after the Sri Lanka series if the runs do not come? That answer will tell us more about this regime than Pant's strike rate ever will.
Source: thehindu.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
