Rishabh Pant‘s comeback story has been great but it hasn’t been up to the mark. He returned to action in IPL 2024 for Delhi Capitals. Since then he has been a regular for the India Cricket Team and even went on to win the ICC T20 World Cup. But in general, especially in red-ball cricket, his form hasn’t been at the top.
In terms of First Class Cricket, he played only one Duleep Trophy match for India B in 2024. And when it comes to the Ranji Trophy, he hasn’t played domestic cricket since 2018. This means it has been 6 long years since he last played this domestic cricket format.
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Why Rishabh Pant needs to play Ranji Trophy?
As things stand, after the Border Gavaskar Trophy, India’s focus will shift to white-ball cricket. In the India vs England series, the India Cricket Team will play 5 T20Is and 3 ODI matches. And then comes the crucial ICC Champions Trophy. Post that will be the IPL. After the Indian Premier League, if India makes it to the finals, they will take on South Africa for the WTC Finals.
Finally, in the summer, India will travel to England for 5 five-match Test series. And in all, Rishabh Pant’s batting hasn’t been up to the standards that the team warrants from him. He has been a bit clumsy, paying reckless shots that have been a cause of his untimely dismissals.
The BCCI since last year has encouraged and asked National Team players not to disregard domestic cricket. Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan went on to bear the brunt as their BCCI Central Contracts were denied. Pant too has been a regular player in the National setup.
So far in his career, Rishabh Pant has just played 17 Ranji Trophy matches. And for a senior player in the team that is poor stat. He made his debut for Delhi back in the 2015-16 season. The highlight came the next season when he slammed a triple century. He then went on to smash the fastest Ranji Trophy century from just 48 deliveries against Jharkhand.
As things stand, it is of utmost importance that Rishabh Pant plays domestic cricket to be at the very best of his game. The IND vs AUS Test series has been a testament to show how the team can falter if they deny playing domestic cricket.
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