Let’s get to Rishab Pant’s IPL numbers straightaway: 0, 15, 2, 2, DNB, 21, 63, 3. It isn’t an alarming cause of concern to undergo forensic analysis of his batting. It is T20 cricket and a tournament like the IPL is the beast amongst it all, where a high-risk approach is the order of the day and Pant being the most adventurous of all Indian batsmen, he is bound to have such scores.
But Pant’s white-ball issues aren’t a surprise. When Pant walked into India’s T20 World Cup squad last year, behind the scenes not everyone were convinced about his spot. In the months he spent recovering from a car crash, India had flirted between KL Rahul, Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan. That none of them came close to nailing the spot meant, for the World Cup in the US and Caribbean, Pant’s X-factor was deemed necessary as being a left-hander he fit into a side that was largely made up of right-handers. His aggressive, adventurous brand of game was most sought out in a team that had Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli opening at the top.
Since their triumph, under a new captain in Suryakumar Yadav and head coach Gautam Gambhir, Pant has featured only in two T20Is, which came last July in Sri Lanka. Since India were lined up to play 10 Tests in four months, he has been missing from the white-ball squads with Rohit Sharma-led team opting for KL Rahul for the Champions Trophy. And thus when the IPL began, he came into the tournament short of match touch. Since the conclusion of the Australia tour, he has featured in just one Ranji fixture. He has also been stretched a lot as a captain of a team thin on bowling resources.
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So far in this IPL, where he has crossed 25 only once, Pant hasn’t looked out of sorts, but has resembled a batsman who is searching for rhythm and flow. Has he got out losing shape? Yes. But that is Pant’s DNA. It happens all the time, with him, across formats. In the match against Chennai Super Kings, Pant appeared to discover his old self where after coming in early, he took control of Lucknow’s innings before being pinned down by Noor Ahmad. Still those 63 runs against Chennai would have done his confidence a world of good. That Nicholas Pooran has been in such terrific form has also helped Pant to sail through without much criticism like in the case of Rohit Sharma.
All said done, the second half of the IPL remains all the more important for Pant if he is serious about reviving his white-ball career with India. Post 2023 World Cup, India haven’t handed over the gloves to Pant, still preferring Rahul’s flexibility ahead of the package that Pant provides being a wicketkeeper and a left-handed batsman. In the Champions Trophy, Rahul has levelled up his white-ball game and when the think-tank sits down to draw the blueprint for the 2027 World Cup, he would be high in the pecking order.
Where does Pant stand in T20I?
And more importantly, having lost his spot in India’s T20I squad, Pant knows he is running out of time when it comes to the next year’s T20 World Cup. Unless Pant rediscovers his touch in the second half of the IPL, it would be challenging for him to stay in contention for the tournament. Unlike the previous edition, where he was the most adventurous batsman in the squad alongside Suryakumar Yadav, in the current set-up there is no such shortage. From Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson at the top to Tilak Varma and Suryakumar to Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya, India have set of batsmen who have embraced the high-risk, bold approach to unseen levels. The challenge for Pant now is to show he can be one among them, if not better. Given Gambhir’s liking for left-right combination, and batsmen who provide flexibility, Pant can provide them all and a lot more. If he is seeking inspiration then he just has to look at his teammate at Lucknow, Nicholas Pooran. For a batsman who frustrated teams with his untimely falls because of the brand of cricket he plays, he is currently the most consistent T20 batsmen around the globe.
The best part of all is Pant isn’t alien to this. So far in his IPL career, he has had five seasons where he has gone at a strike-rate in excess of 150, which itself is a rarity. And in four of those seasons he has done that at an average over 30, which in modern T20 standards is an effective number. With Samson too struggling for runs, and Rahul not in the T20 scheme of things, Pant still has an opportunity to make that slot his own. How soon he finds his rhythm back will provide answers to it.