“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” Sunil Gavaskar cried on air when Rishabh Pant threw his wicket away in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. Twice Pant got the wrath of fans as his wicket changed the momentum of the game completely in Australia’s favour. The support of playing his “natural game” was questioned. But now former Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin has opined his view on the matter, saying that Pant has one of the best defences in Test cricket and finding a middle ground between caution and aggression will see him score a century in every other game.
“Rishabh Pant is yet to realise his fullest potential”
“We have to tell him properly what he has to do if he has to bat solid or bat with intent. He hasn’t scored a lot of runs, but he didn’t play like someone without runs. He has a lot of time on his hands. Rishabh Pant is yet to realise his fullest potential,” said Ashwin on his Youtube channel.
Ravichandran Ashwin waxed lyrical about Rishabh Pant’s batting. He admitted that despite him scoring all the runs over the years, the southpaw is yet to realise his full batting potential. Yes, we are here talking about arguably India’s best keeper batter, who has two Test centuries in England and one each in Australia, and South Africa.
“He has all the shots reverse sweep, slog sweep, everything but the problem is that all these shots are high-risk shots. With his defence, he will surely score runs every game if he faces 200 balls. The point is finding that middle game. If he combines all of it, he will score 100 runs every game. He has to find that middle game. I have always grown up hearing that you have fight it out. In Sydney, he played two different knocks in one single game. He got hit everywhere and scored a 40, it will be the least spoken innings of Rishabh Pant. It is very unfair. In the second innings, he scored a swashbuckling fifty, earning him a lot of praise. Everyone forgot that first innings and praised him for the second knock,” Ashwin pointed out.
Pant to score century in every Test?
You’ve got to hand it to Rishabh Pant—the guy’s got some serious defensive chops as well! Ashwin is singing his praises, saying Pant’s defence is right up there with the best in the world, alongside the likes of Joe Root and Steve Smith. And it’s not just Ashwin being generous; Pant’s stats back it up. He rarely gets out playing defensively, and Ashwin’s even admitted that he’s struggled to get Pant out in the nets.
The guy’s a mystery to bowl to, and his recent performances in the SCG Test were a perfect example of his unpredictable style – a gritty 40 in the first innings, followed by a blistering 61 in the second.
“We must realise that Rishabh Pant rarely gets out playing a defence. He’s got one of the best defences in world cricket. Defence has become a challenging aspect, he has the best defence with a soft hand. I have bowled to him a lot in the nets, he’s not gotten out, he doesn’t get an edge, he doesn’t get LBW, he has the best defence. I have tried telling it to him. One opinion about Rishabh was that he plays a lot of shots, he has to fight it out in Test cricket. Test cricket is playing according to situation. In the last seven years, batting has become significantly difficult, from 2018 to 2025. But, in the WTC cycle, batting averages have decreased. Joe Root is in his own zone. Of course, Williamson… Smith has rediscovered again. What we realised is, Rishabh Pant has played in these times.”
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