Is Rishabh Pant India’s most reliable batter in Test cricket?
Everything was going well for team India’s favour until a 3-0 whitewash against New Zealand changed the whole scenario. So let’s take a look at Is Rishabh Pant India’s most reliable batter in Test cricket.
The series loss not only dented India’s chances for the WTC 2025 final, but also exposed Indian batters in front of spinners.
India faced a crushing series defeat, as their senior batters failed to perform in any of six innings across three test games. It was only Pant that only kept India’s hopes alive whenever he was on pitch but went on to score the highest runs in the series with 261 in six innings, including 3 fifties.
Apart from Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal was India’s lone batter in the batting line-up, who was seen fighting but he always fell short of scoring match setting or saving runs.
India was having a good 2024 as far as test cricket concerned, starting with a win versus South Africa in January, and 4-1 series win vs England, followed by a 2-0 win over Bangladesh.
After losing the first two tests against New Zealand, India was about to 147 on the third day of Mumbai test, although the pitch was in favour of spinners, but the target was not that big that cannot be achieved.
It was Pant’s 64 that kept India’s hopes alive, while Washington Sundar was the second-best scorer with 12 for India as they bowled out for 121.
Indian batters recent struggle against New Zealand in continuity reversed the whole momentum, and put a question mark that is it only Pant’s responsibility to score runs?
India’s next series is against Australia, starting November 22. With Pant having an average around 62 vs the Aussies in test cricket, it clearly shows that Pant will start the BGT as India’s most reliable batter.
Pant in Test cricket
Rishabh Pant has been seen as perfect replacement for MS Dhoni in all formats since his arrival, and Pant has managed to make that spot his permanent specially in red-ball format.
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No one can forget his heroics at Gabba in 2021 that led India to a historic win in Australia and India won second successive BGT in Australia.
The left-arm batter has played 38 tests in his career, scoring 2693 runs at an average of 44.14.
Mat Inns Runs HS Avg 50s 100s
38 66 2693 159* 44.14 14 6
