Pant was named as the Test team’s vice-captain in 2022, but due to his forced break from cricket, Jasprit Bumrah was made Rohit Sharma’s deputy.
Rishabh Pant was all set to face the wrath of the India cricket team head coach, Gautam Gambhir, after his disappointing dismissals in Melbourne. The wicketkeeper had tried to scoop/lap Scott Boland in the first innings and gotten caught out at third man while Team India was 191/5 while trailing by 263 runs.
Then in the second outing, with the chance of winning virtually non-existent, Pant hit a rank long hop from Travis Head to the hands of Mitchell Marsh at long-off. His wicket led to a collapse of epic proportions, as Team India lost the next six wickets for just 34 runs in 20.3 overs.
Gambhir wasn’t happy with how Pant played in both of these situations. It was suggested that the wicketkeeper might be dropped for the India vs Australia 5th Test and be replaced by Dhruv Jurel. The idea of which seems ludicrous. Pant is Team India’s third-highest run-scorer in the World Test Championship (WTC) history, behind just Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Gautam Gambhir’s message to Pant
He’s been Team India’s best away batter for some time now, with Test hundreds in Australia, South Africa, and England. That wasn’t probably going to happen, but Gambhir did reinforce that playersneed to take more onus. When they win, they win as a team, and when they lose, they lose as a team.
“Every individual knows what needs to be done. They know areas to work on. I won’t talk about individuals. We win and lose as a team. When you play for your country, you know you have to give your best, and you always want to make the maximum contributions,” Gambhir told reporters in Sydney on the eve of the match.
Rishabh Pant, vice-captain of Test team once again?
Despite facing the ire of his head coach, Pant will probably be named as the vice-captain of Team India for the Sydney Test. The wicketkeeper won’t be rewarded despite his shortcomings but rather due to uncertainty over Rohit Sharma’s participation in the 5th Test.
Asked about Rohit Sharma playing on December 3, Gambhir had said, “We’ll take the playing XI call after looking at the pitch tomorrow.” This suggests that he might be dropped and Bumrah will be named the captain. If that indeed happens, Team India can’t drop another experienced and senior player like Pant, and he might once again be named vice-captain of Team India.
Team India’s squad for the Sydney Test
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Sarfaraz Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prasidh Krishna, Shubman Gill, Devdutt Padikkal, Tanush Kotian, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Harshit Rana
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