One of the puzzles about Rishabh Pant has been his lack of runs in the T20 format. Though early on in the Indian Premier League, he has managed to have a few good seasons as his career progressed, the numbers diminished in the showpiece event. His returns in the Indian colours, too, have been quite underwhelming. Interestingly, despite his poor run of form in T20s, Pant was selected for the World Cup last year which India managed to win, and former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra was quick to point out Pant was the third highest run-scorer from the Indian side in the tournament, and there has not been a lot of discussion around him when it came to the shortest format like some of the other wicket-keeper batters for 2026 T20 World Cup.
“When Rishabh Pant bats at Nos. 1 to 3, he has scored his runs at a strike rate of 156 and has an average of 34, which is good. However, we will not talk about the top three. When you look at Nos. 4 to 7, he has a strike rate of 140 and an average of 30. It’s still okay,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
“The one thing that goes in his favor, and I am very surprised that no one talks about it, is that he was India’s third-highest run-scorer in the T20 World Cup we won. It seems like a fly has been taken out of milk and thrown away. No one is talking about him. Of course, the IPL not being that good might be one of the reasons, but not even coming into the conversation is a strange one,” Chopra added.
Pant was the costliest player ever at the auction, purchased for Rs 27 crore, his move from Delhi Capitals to Lucknow – with KL Rahul going the other way around and just touching distance from tallying 500 runs for the season – as a captain was bound to bring more scrutiny. From a franchise where he seemed tired of the constant juggle in the operations front, he was now in a set-up where his predecessor was pulled up by the team’s owner in full public view. As a captain as well, Pant was hardly an inspirational figure at Delhi Capitals.
