Making Rishabh Pant Test captain would have been wiser investment for the future

Team India Test captaincy debate: Top reasons why Rishabh Pant was a better choice than Shubman Gill.

When Rohit Sharma hung up his boots from Test cricket, India’s quest for their new red-ball leader began, with only a few candidates available to take up the role. Despite Jasprit Bumrah’s importance in the team, the selectors took a young route to keep him in the cotton wool. However, they dodged Rishabh Pant, an experienced campaigner of the side, to shoulder the responsibility on Shubman Gill. 

Questions arise if it was a wise decision for the future? Test cricket is standing at a tipping point right now. After Virat Kohli’s retirement from the five-day format, there are fears of red-ball cricket’s sustainability in the next decade. But which players carry the power to engage the fans for five long days? Undoubtedly, one of them is Rishabh Pant.

Rishabh Pant’s early success in Test cricket 
Sachin Tendulkar got an outside edge into the hands of the slip fielder in his final Test inning. As he walked off for the last time in international cricket, he crossed Kohli, who nailed his first ball to the boundary. There was a symbolism in the incident. 

Nearly 12 years later, Kohli was caught at slip off Scott Boland in Sydney at the beginning of this year. No one knew it would be his final red-ball inning. Interestingly, the irony took place. Pant clubbed the next ball for a six. 

The wicket-keeper batter, in such a short span of his Test career, has already earned success. With the bat, he has smashed 2948 runs in 75 innings at an average of 42.11. He carries an entertaining strike rate of 73.62, celebrating 15 half-centuries and six centuries. 

He is the first designated wicket-keeper batter from Asia to get a Test century in South Africa. In addition, he is the only Indian wicket-keeper to notch up centuries in Australia, England, South Africa, and India. 

Traveling around the globe for eight years’ of red-ball cricket and playing under Kohli and Rohit’s captaincy, Pant has learnt insights of Test cricket. With the gloves, he has developed his skills over the years. Pant faced early trouble with the late swing of the red-ball in England during his first tour in 2018. 

But since then, he has worked on this prospect and has found good hands to keep against both the spinners and pacers. It’s not an easy job to keep wickets against Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin on fourth and fifth day surfaces in India. However, the Uttarakhand-born has made it look simple. 

Read More: Rishabh Pant’s Form in IPL 2025 a Major Worry Ahead of England Tour? Or Will He Manage to Turn It Around in the Red-Ball Format?

Rishabh Pant’s rare skill of engaging fans in Test cricket
Love him or hate him, but it’s hard to ignore Rishabh Pant in Test cricket. Most of the Indian fans woke up early in the winter morning to enjoy his batting during the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25. Not many players carry this unique skill of attracting fans in the red-ball format. 

When most of the India batters struggled on the spinning surfaces against New Zealand last year, the 27-year-old displayed his class. He ended as the leading run-getter with 261 runs in six innings at a strike rate of nearly 90. 

The southpaw carried this form in Australia to smash 255 runs in nine Test innings at a strike rate of around 60. Just after three dot deliveries, one can bet on Pant cracking an unimaginable shot. Interestingly, he executed those on most occasions. He is a force of nature and a destroyer of reputation. 

Read More: Expectations from India’s new Test captain Shubman Gill

Balanced pleasure and pain of Test captaincy 
In a recent podcast with Ashwin, Jadeja taught the listeners about the difference of captaincy in T20s and Tests. He noted that it would become more hectic in the shortest format, requiring tactical decisions on every situation. On the other hand, red-ball leadership is more strategic and calculative, involving adjustments to field positions of different bowlers. 

Being a wicket-keeper, Pant will always have the exposure to set different fields for bowlers to create pressure on the batters. In addition, having grown under Kohli and Rohit, he knows how to handle various situations in the game. After all, he is both experienced and young, which is a rarity in this format these days. 

Teams often travel with a huge support staff, but captaincy in cricket is a different job than in other sports. In wins, it’s the contribution of teamwork, while in losses, it’s the captain’s fault. The former Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly, called Test captaincy of India the second most difficult job after the Prime Minister’s. 

Pant has ticked all the boxes to be a successful red-ball leader. Meanwhile, Gill hasn’t earned success yet in the format. His average of 35 in 32 games is an underwhelming record for a player of his talent and impact. His average outside home is below 28, with only away century in Bangladesh. 

Pant deserves the Test captaincy, and Gill could have been the perfect vice-captain to understand the format a little better in the future. Nonetheless, India will face their first challenge without Rohit and Kohli during the five-match Test series in England. If Gill doesn’t do well in the first six months, Pant may turn up in the blazer in the future.

Read More: Who will lead India’s bowling attack after Jasprit Bumrah leaves the scene