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Rishabh Pant retains his spot in the Test team, but only as a keeper—batter, not as a vice-captain. He was the vice-captain of the Indian Test cricket squad, but now, the team management has appointed KL Rahul as the new deputy of the skipper, Shubman Gill, for the one-off Test against Afghanistan.
It was a surprising decision by the team management of the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel to include the southpaw, as he is still considered one of the most exciting elements in the Whites.
Rishabh Pant lost his vice-captaincy role in Tests
In general, Rishabh Pant’s batting style aligns well with the Twenty20 format, where batters need to score runs in consistence pace. Former Team India cricketer Mohammad Kaif believes that the team management should keep their trust in the keeper-batter.
While discussing India’s Test squad for the one-off match against Afghanistan, Mohammad Kaif stood in support of Rishabh Pant. The former cricketer claims that the keeper-batter did nothing wrong in the format so far.
Pant-led LSG has an underwhelming IPL 2026 season
Pant is not enjoying a swift season with Lucknow Super Giants in the ongoing IPL season. Neither the team nor the captain has had a great outing in the campaign. They have already crashed out of the title race.
Though Kaif explains that limited overs formats and Test cricket contain different levels of ball games. If someone is judged based on a completely different format, then it could be a wrong call.
Kaif’s personal belief is that there is no bigger match-winner than Rishabh Pant in the longest format of Cricket purely for his aggressive and unpredictable batting instincts.
Pant has done nothing wrong: Mohammad Kaif
“Rishabh Pant has done nothing wrong. Test matches, red-ball cricket & white-ball cricket are completely different formats. You might judge someone based on the IPL - thinking, 'Yes, he's not doing a good job as a captain, his team is losing, and he isn't scoring runs himself' - My personal belief is that, even today."
"There is no bigger matchwinner with the bat in Test match cricket than Rishabh Pant. I am speaking specifically about the test match format here. It's easy for people to miss this distinction, and that causes problems,” Mohammad Kaif said on JioStar.
After making his debut in the format back in 2018, the Delhi-born has so far played 49 matches in the Tests, and scored 3476 runs for a batting average of 42.91, including a highest of an unbeaten 159-run innings. In the previous year, he played 7 Tests, 4 against England, a couple against South Africa, and one against Australia.
Pant was one of the mainstays of the away series against the Australia and England national cricket teams. Against England in Leeds, the middle-order batter registered two centuries in both of the innings of a Test match. He secured three fifty-plus run innings as well during the India tour of England in 2025.
Read More: Shubman Gill’s role in Auqib Nabi’s Afghanistan Test snub finally revealed
