Rishabh Pant’s underwhelming T20I record has thrown the spotlight on his place in the setup, but he remains crucial to India’s T20I team, writes Rohit Sankar.

Rishabh Pant must have blinked a few extra times as he walked off with the team at 28-2 in the series decider against South Africa in Bengaluru. Knives were already pointed at his neck after another of those ‘rash’ shots didn’t come off in Rajkot. This was the Chinnaswamy Stadium and his team was in strife. It was Pant’s chance to prove why he belonged in the T20 setup for those still doubting him.

His head coach, Rahul Dravid, for one, isn’t in any doubt about his place or role in the side and made it clear in the post-match press conference, stating that Pant is a “very big part of our plans going ahead in next few months”.

“In the process [of playing an attacking game],” Dravid said, “he might go wrong in a few games but he remains an integral part of our batting line-up with the power he has and the fact that he is a left-hander is important to us in the middle overs, he played some good knocks.”

The last line is integral to the entire discussion because it is the definition of everything that’s being questioned about India’s T20 game. A few months back at the previous T20 World Cup, Virat Kohli was met with an unusual question from a journalist after the loss to Pakistan in the post-match press conference. The gist of it was if there was merit in considering Ishan Kishan over Rohit Sharma at the top of the order.

The disbelief on Kohli’s face was evident. It was followed by a sarcastic laugh and a humiliating response – “Will you drop Rohit Sharma from T20 internationals? You will drop Rohit Sharma? Do you know what he did in the last game that we played? Yeah? Unbelievable. If you want controversy, please tell me before so I can answer accordingly.”

Rohit’s T20I returns are decent in the last four years, but they are still inflated with big scores against a couple of teams whose bowling attacks aren’t the greatest. His IPL numbers, on the other hand, since 2018 as an opener mirror those of Ajinkya Rahane, who hasn’t played a T20I in six years. Given Kishan’s incredible run of form, was it really as absurd a question as it was made out to be? Or was it just that India weren’t prepared to ditch their ODI template in T20Is?

Record as opener in IPL since 2017

Rohit Sharma: 27.8 Avg — 127.26 SR
Ajinkya Rahane: 28.7 Avg — 126.4 SR

Discuss.#MIvPBKS #IPL2022

— Rohit Sankar (@imRohit_SN) April 13, 2022

In this case, though, the question marks around Pant aren’t without reason. Of the nine Indians to bat more than 40 times in T20Is, Pant has the second-worst average and the worst strike rate. The average, which sits at 23.15, is largely excusable for someone playing the role Pant does, but the second isn’t.

A strike rate of 123.91 with a six every 19 balls paints Pant in a pretty poor light in T20Is with his evident potential not translating into impactful performances on a reasonably consistent basis for the team. With the T20 World Cup less than four months away, and Dinesh Karthik blazing back into T20Is with a maiden fifty in the ongoing series against South Africa, the focus is back on Pant, his shot selection, and overall T20I record.

This is the present, but let’s roll back a bit to when Pant was reeling off runs in the IPL at a rate Indians were hardly used to. Between 2017 and 2019, no one, Indian or overseas, made more runs in the IPL than Pant. He made those at a strike rate of 168.09 while averaging close to 40.

In the same time frame, he appeared in 20 T20Is for India, averaging 20.4 and striking at 121.7 with constant scrutiny on his wild slogs and temperament. The coach openly talked about giving him “a rap on the knuckles, talent or no talent” and the captain insisted that a player would get at most “five chances” to prove himself.

“One will get five chances and he will have to prove himself,” Kohli said in late 2019 with a year to go to the T20 World Cup (the event was later moved to 2021 due to the pandemic). “Youngsters are being pushed in from time to time as it is important to settle the team combination because we have to figure out the guys who will take the team forward.” This came one month after an ODI World Cup for which a 21-year-old, in-form Pant wasn’t picked initially, but then thrown in at the crucial No.4 spot after he came in as an injury replacement.

In 2020, Pant was again dropped from the limited-overs team for the tour of Australia with Sanju Samson donning the gloves in the T20I leg. Like Pant, Samson is a disruption to India’s normal T20 template and it wasn’t surprising to see Samson swapped out again for Pant after the latter’s success in the Test tour.

Two years later, the outside perspective around Pant hasn’t changed much, but simply put, India do not have a left-hander anywhere near the quality of Pant to bat in the middle overs, take down spin and take on hard lengths. In the recent IPL, he smashed spin at a rate of 156.4 and went at a strike-rate of over 140 against pace. He may not click every game, but he does not need to. With his intent and aggression, Pant will remain an outlier in an otherwise monotonous batting line-up when the big names return.

It’s not that Pant does not have flaws – his issue against the wide line was highlighted in the recent series against South Africa – but to have a 24-year-old middle-order batter, who bats left-handed and has an excellent record against pace and spin is a luxury in any T20 team. If India did not see it before, under a different management, they do now.