IND vs AFG: Under-fire Rishabh Pant rediscovers Test-match rhythm

No player came into the one-off Test against Afghanistan with as much baggage as Rishabh Pant.

India’s first-choice wicketkeeper in the longest format has been caught in a downward spiral, which culminated in him losing the vice-captaincy before this Test.

Dhruv Jurel is breathing down his neck, and Ishan Kishan is knocking on the door for a Test recall. Against this backdrop, head coach Gautam Gambhir threw the gauntlet at Pant to pick up runs against Afghanistan.

“The responsibility is playing for India. Everything else is a by-product. Captaincy, vice-captaincy, all these are by-products. When you start playing for India, you don’t think about vice-captaincy or captaincy at all. You think about doing well for India. So, going from one to the other is just a by-product. And ultimately, everyone is judged on performance.

“As far as Rishabh is concerned, we will expect him to be the way he is. It’s not like we will tell him that you have to curb his game. The ultimate aim is to make a run and take a wicket. You can never escape that. No matter how you make it,” Gambhir had said before the game.

Pant was free of any burden less than 12 months back when he was churning out runs against England in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series.

It ended with a freaky foot injury, but it elevated his status. In hobbling down the steps at Old Trafford despite a broken right foot, Pant’s bravado became immortalised as it did for Malcolm Marshall and Graeme Smith. His England visit finished with 479 runs and an average of 68 from seven innings, which included three fifties and two centuries.

But in a fickle cricketing world where recency bias shapes the narrative, even such hauls hold currency only over a short period. The mix-and-match of playing across formats weighs too.

And here was Pant, walking out at the New PCA Stadium on Saturday, after his struggles in the IPL and a poor South Africa series, expected to show that he’s still got it.

The early butterflies were clear in how Pant fought the temptation to go for the big hits. Off his first 21 balls, Pant picked no boundaries and ticked to only six runs. There was an odd poke or cut, but only half-hearted in a restrained spell of full-bladed blocks.

The patience lasted only so long. His step-out six down the ground off Abdul Malik on his 22nd ball was telling that he had been itching to have a swing. Pant collected two more heaves through the on-side in the same over. 

This was the 67th over. This was all he had till the 82nd over, and only because a long-hop from Hashmatullah Shahidi invited a pull, he picked a boundary. The mandate given to him was loud and clear and, more importantly, understood – play according to the situation.

Pant was more confident on Sunday. Facing just his second ball on the second day, he gave the charge to Azmatullah Omarzai and creamed a drive through cover.

The IPL slump had brought up Pant’s bottom-handed problem – an unorthodox grip that hampered his off-side range and general power-hitting ability.

The flaw spilled over here too, with the bat turning in his hand on multiple occasions, even on his defence. However, it was no excuse not to go for the occasional hit. He emulated the step-out-and-drive against Ziaur Rahman Shairif and Saleem Safi, which were the perfect interludes in his settled approach to a hundred.

His bottom-hand grip cost him his wicket eventually when he went after Shahidi and only fluffed his loft down to long-off. Had the bat not turned, the ball would have sailed over the fielder. He was on 81. India went on to score 564.

India will canter through to a win, and invariably, Shubman Gill and KL Rahul’s hundreds will come higher when the credits roll.

A hundred would have been ideal, but Pant himself might take this innings with a pinch, given it came against an experienced Afghanistan attack.

Yet in his 121-ball stay, which lasted 194 minutes and spanned nearly two sessions, Pant showed that his flagship Test-cricket flair can come in a traditional variant, too. For now, that will be enough.

Published on Jun 07, 2026