In a world where even yesterday seems a million miles in the past, 22 months is more than a lifetime, so it’s sometimes easy to forget that when India won the T20 World Cup after a 17-year drought in Bridgetown in June 2024, Rishabh Pant was the man standing behind the stumps, donning the wicketkeeping gloves, orchestrating the match-turning dismissal of the marauding Heinrich Klaasen with a classic piece of Pant gamesmanship in the title clash.
The effervescent left-hander started the tournament brightly on the dodgy pitches at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York, looking India’s best batter during hard-earned victories against Ireland (36 not out) and Pakistan (42 off 31 out of 119) respectively. But once the Indians moved to the Caribbean for the Super Eights and beyond, Pant went off kilter, making just 75 runs in five innings, among them a second-ball duck in the final against South Africa.
How Rishabh Pant slipped out of India’s white-ball plans
Pant, one would have thought, had done enough to earn a longish rope, but after two matches in Pallekele the following month – 49 off 33 and 2 not out off 2 – he was banished into international T20 wilderness. India have dabbled with Sanju Samson, turned to Jitesh Sharma, invested in Ishan Kishan and come a full circle by going back to Samson, while Pant hasn’t even been on the fringes, an almost forgotten figure when it comes to white-ball cricket, given that KL Rahul has made the 50-over wicketkeeper-batter slot his own with his monumental contributions at No. 5 and 6.
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The 28-year-old’s limited-overs numbers are passable but nothing more; 31 ODIs have yielded 871 runs at an average of 33.50 and a strike-rate of 106.21 with an unbeaten 125 as his only ton, while in 76 T20Is, he has 1,209 runs, for a modest average of 23.25 and an unflattering rate of scoring of 127.26 runs per 100 balls faced. For all his mercurial exploits in Test cricket – average 42.91, strike-rate a high 74.24, and eight hundreds in 49 outings – Pant has found limited-overs internationals an unpalatable cup of tea, an Achilles’ heel that has stymied his progress and almost sucked the joy out of him.
His woes have been mounting since being axed from both white-ball versions after the aforementioned tour of Sri Lanka in July-August 2024. In the last 20 months, Pant has been exclusively a Test cricketer – not by choice – and a bloody good one at that. But it must hurt that despite a skillset and an approach that would appear ideally suited to the demands of the frenetic world of 20- and 50-over cricket, he isn’t just superfluous to India’s plans, he is also almost excluded from every selection discussion.
In all the doom and gloom, Pant has managed to retain his equilibrium and his equanimity, though one can clearly see that the free spirit of the past, and not just with the bat, is slowly ebbing away. Maybe some of it has to do with the second shot at life he received after his horrific single-car accident of December 2022. But one suspects most of it stems from his lackadaisical white-ball returns that have dumped him so far down the white-ball pecking order that he might not even be able to see those who are perched at the top.
India might not value Pant the white-ball stutterer so much, but clearly, he is still hot property in the IPL. At the mega auction in Jeddah in November 2024, Pant watched nervously from Rohit Sharma’s Perth room when he was snared by Lucknow Super Giants for an unprecedented ₹27 crore, making him the most expensive player in the tournament’s history. Few grudged him that astronomical sum; before the T20 World Cup in the Americas, he had had an excellent run with Delhi Capitals in IPL 2024, with 446 runs while striking at 155.40. It seemed money well spent on a player with more than 3,300 IPL runs at a strike-rate of close on 150 who was also tasked with helming the fortunes of the side.
Except, that while money can buy many things, it can’t buy happiness. Or runs in any format, the 20-over version in this instance.
His first season with LSG was fraught with failures frowned upon by a demanding owner. Pant stuttered and stumbled, his bat on ice, as his first 13 innings translated to just 151 runs. His batting was ponderous and bereft of the joie de vivre that he has donned as a dazzling cloak for a decade. He seemed weighed down by the cares of unsuccessful leadership, the characteristic spring in his stride missing both literally and figuratively.
Not even a Pant-esque unbeaten 118 in the final league tie, in a losing cause against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, meant much in the larger context. LSG missed out on making the playoffs for the second edition in a row. Now, that terrible run which brought them a mere six wins from 14 outings has spilled over to a new season.
Following their five-wicket lashing by holders RCB on Wednesday, LSG’s two last-over wins, one masterminded by Pant himself, have been cancelled out by three heavy losses. Bad enough, right? But wait, there’s worse.
Pant had a tortured six-ball stay in the middle across two equal stints, which resulted in just one run and that too because he was dropped at short third man by Suyash Sharma. In his first visit, he was hit amidships by Josh Hazlewood, operating at peak level, and then missed a pull with the ball thudding into his left elbow. Pant was in great pain, and not even physio Patrick Farhart’s magic and magic spray provided relief. As he walked off the park, his elbow bruised and angry and his face contorted in agony and anguish, Hazlewood walked across with a consolatory pat.
When Pant returned to the crease, his side was tottering at 118 for five with 25 deliveries left. His elbow was heavily protected and you could see from ball one that he was in grave discomfort as he took his bottom hand off the bat handle immediately on contact with the ball. There was no strength in his optimistic swat against a Bhuvneshwar Kumar full toss expertly caught by Phil Salt running in from deep mid-wicket. It was painful to watch; Pant must have endured pain of all sorts as he dragged himself off the middle, aware that his night was over because Mukul Choudhary took his place behind the sticks.
Pant has overseen a miserable campaign marked by frugal returns for his other three top-order battering rams, Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran. Despite his famed recovery skills, his availability for the next game, against Punjab Kings on Sunday, is in jeopardy. Pant has stared far greater adversities in the face and come out smelling of roses. To do an encore, he must invoke his inner Houdini because for now, all escape routes appear to be sealed shut firmly, comprehensively.