Sitanshu Kotak exposes Rishabh Pant’s so-called fearless batting

India National Cricket Team batting coach Sitanshu Kotak has made a fresh revelation on the batting style of the star wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant.

Sitanshu Kotak said that the way Rishabh Pant bats might look reckless and random at times, but that is not the case because the wicketkeeper-batsman puts a lot of thought behind it.

Rishabh Pant in red-hot form against England

The newly-appointed India National Cricket Team Test vice-captain Rishabh Pant has been in a red-hot form in the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.

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Pant started off his 2025 England tour with historic twin tons at Headingley in Leeds, which unfortunately came in a losing cause as India were at the receiving end of a 5-wicket defeat.

Rishabh Pant scored 134 runs in the first innings of the Leeds Test and followed it up with a score of 118 in the second innings, becoming the second wicketkeeper-batsman in history to achieve the twin tons feat.

As the action moved towards Edgbaston in Birmingham, Pant continued his good form and chipped in with 25 and 65 runs across two innings and played a vital role in India's dominant 336-run win.

Also Read: Rishabh Pant officially retained by this franchise after IPL 2025 disaster with LSG

Rishabh actually talks a lot about what he does - Sitanshu Kotak

Sitanshu Kotak, the new India batting coach, attended a press conference days before the Lord's Test, where he was asked how important it was for batting partners not to talk to Rishabh Pant.

Responding to this, Kotak made a rather interesting revelation, stating that Pant has a lot of clarity and is a deep thinker of batting, with his moves not being as random as they look. He also said that Pant doesn't like talking too much when he is in the middle. Kotak said:

"Rishabh actually talks a lot about what he does, when he does [it], why he does [it]. To me, he's spoken, but he's someone who doesn't like talking too much during his innings because he feels that that changes his mindset, and he takes the wrong decision. That's only when he's batting.

"Apart from that, he talks about other batters also, about himself also, and he does [properly plan] what he wants to do because it's not so easy to score Test hundreds or not so easy to be successful at this level without having any planning."

We have batted well in both the matches - Sitanshu Kotak

Sitanshu Kotak further spoke about a 'bad mindset' that the batters have developed after playing in extreme bowling-friendly conditions. He said:

"If a batter thinks there is a lot of movement in the pitch, and if there is [half] an opportunity I have to score boundaries because there is a good ball coming [anyway], that is a bad mindset for red-ball cricket.

"Anyway, they possess so much skill because of white-ball cricket that they can convert anything in the slot into fours and sixes. They don't have to really think that I want to hit a boundary."

Sitanshu Kotak added that the Indian batters have got a philosophy of not searching for boundaries; instead, they focus on getting risk-free runs, which has been the reason behind their success in the ongoing series.

"We have batted well in both matches. I feel we have such skilful batters [who] can score at four an over without going searching for runs. What else is aggressive batting? We are scoring 360 in 90 overs. But our mindset now is to not go looking for boundaries."

Also Read: Watch: Rishabh Pant and Gautam Gambhir's team politics caught on camera