Rishabh Pant – The name has been on everyone’s lips since a long time now, whether it was related for criticism during the early days or appreciation in the recent times. Rishabh Pant made the debut for Indian National Cricket team in January 2017 in T20I, followed by Test debut in August 2018 and ODI debut in October 2018.
Story of Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant was called up for his test debut when Wriddhiman Saha got injured on England tour and since then the player has been in and out of test side. However, soon Pant achieved the feat of only India wicket-keeper scoring test centuries in England and Australia, and since then Wriddhiman Saha has been sidelined from the squad.
Even after smashing bowlers all over the park, Pant’s name was missing in the original squad for World Cup 2019. But luck favored him as injuries to Shikhar Dhawan and Vijay Shankar paved ways for him to enter the squad.
Later, he was picked up in playing XI for semi-finals, where he calmly batted for 32 runs until throwing away his wicket with a reckless shot. This garnered lots of hatred towards him as Indian fans started chanting Dhoni Dhoni to express their anger and show that he cannot fill the boots of former captain MS Dhoni. Although, Rishabh Pant was defended by captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri and many senior players of the team saying, “The cricketer is still young and will learn from his mistakes.”
Rishabh Pant then had a bizarre series West Indies where he could manage only one plus score in 7 innings and thus after this even seniors lost their cool. Reactions were as follow-
“He tries to repeat it a couple of times and gets out, he will be told. There will be a rap on the knuckles there – talent or no talent – because you are letting the team down, forget letting yourself down. You are letting the team down in a situation where you have the captain at the other end. You have a target to chase where the need of the hour is some sensible cricket”– India coach Ravi Shastri (September 2019)
“We are very clear on the fact that … even when I came into the team, it’s not that you got 15 opportunities. You would get five, and you have to make the most of it. And that’s the level that we are playing at.” – Kohli (September 2019)
Post pandemic, Rishabh pant had a miserable IPL season, which eventually lead him being dropped from limited overs against Australia. Pant was certainly on he verge of been dropped from Indian cricket team from all formats, yet he was given a chance in the “3rd test against Australia in Sydney where he scored 97” thunderous runs to draw the match in India’s favour. Later, he did the impossible and unimaginable thing by scoring 89 runs on the final day of the 4th test match to seal the series for India against Australia on their home soil. Pant cemented in his test position when he scored valuable runs against England in India.
Although, gaining his spot back in ODI team was still a long road to walk on, as Indian side was quite settled. But some people have all the luck, as yet again Shreyas Iyer got injured while fielding which vacated a position in batting order to be filled by him. This also resulted in captaincy role of Delhi Capitals been handed over to him even after the comeback of Shreyas Iyer from injury. Rishabh did wonders in IPL 2021 season with the role of captaincy as he successfully managed to lead the team to play-offs. Even though India had a forgettable T20 World Cup 2021 campaign, Rishabh was above average than Indian players, accumulating 78 runs in 3 innings with an average of 39.
Rishabh has started the year 2022 with a commendable show to his name as he solely took India to a respectable total of 198/10 in the third test match, scoring 100 not out.
Here’s a look back at the scores of Rishabh Pant which made him achieve great heights in his international career at the age of merely 24 :
114 Vs England At Oval,2018
159* Vs Australia At SCG, 2019
97 Vs Australia At SCG, 2021
89 Vs Australia At Gabba, 2021
100* Vs South Africa At Cape Town, 2022
He has surely dominated the test cricket at overseas as his all 4 test centuries have come in a different nation. We believe he has more in his pocket to contribute to Indian Cricket team in the upcoming years.
