Rishabh Pant is one of the most exciting cricketers in the world today and has made Test cricket fun with his exhilarating batting and chirping behind the stumps. He has an enviable Test record of 3427 runs in 47 Tests with 8 centuries and 18 fifties and an average of 44.50.
However, his record in white-ball cricket is not up to par. In 31 ODIs, Pant has 871 runs with one ton and five fifties with an average of 33.50. However, the most frustrating deal is his T20I record, with 1209 runs in 76 matches with three fifties, an average of 23.25, and a strike rate of 127.26.
Despite having a few successful seasons early in the Indian Premier League, his numbers declined in the championship game as his career developed. He has also had a lackluster return in the Indian colors.
It's interesting to note that Pant was chosen for the World Cup last year, which India won, despite his dismal T20 performance.
Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra quickly pointed out that Pant was the third-highest run scorer for the Indian team in the competition. Unlike some of the other wicket-keeper batsmen for the 2026 T20 World Cup, he has not received much attention in relation to the shortest format.
“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.
Notably, Rishabh Pant is the costliest player bought in IPL, as Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) bought him for INR 27 crores in the IPL 2025 auction. However, LSG couldn’t qualify for the playoffs in the IPL 2025, and Pant’s outing with the bat was also below par despite a century at the fag end of the tournament.
