IND vs SA: Can Rishabh Pant Replicate Adam Gilchrist As India's Opening Batter? John Buchanan Offers His Opinion

In the third and final T20I of the series against South Africa on Tuesday, Team India’s fashionable wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant was the opener.

The 25-year-old wicketkeeper-batter has opened in international T20s before; his first appearance came in July of this year when India toured England for a postponed Test, three ODIs, and as many T20Is. Pant made his T20I opener debut in two games, scoring 26 and one.

Rishabh Pant Fails To Capture Opportunity

When KL Rahul was resting for the Indore T20I on Tuesday night, Rishabh Pant started with Rohit Sharma. Pant played a very composed initial part of his innings before exploding in Lungi Ngidi’s first over, scoring 20 runs off the first five deliveries.

He did, however, receive a relatively cheap dismissal on the penultimate ball when Pant was caught at cover. Pant did manage to score 27 runs off of 13 balls, but India ultimately fell short by 49 runs. 

It’s interesting to note that other wicketkeepers have opened in T20Is besides Pant. For Pakistan’s limited-overs team, Mohammad Rizwan is the chosen opener, and he has recently led the team in T20I performance. However, when discussing wicketkeeper-openers in a more general sense, one name that springs to mind almost right away is that Adam Gilchrist. 

One of the greats of the game, Australia’s renowned left-handed hitter is generally regarded. He played in 96 Tests, 287 ODIs, 13 T20Is, and three times won the ODI World Cup. His peak years as a wicketkeeper and batsman were while playing for Australia under the famous John Buchanan, who guided the team to three consecutive World Cup victories.

Rishabh Pant Could Be A Very Logical Choice To Open The Batting: John Buchanan

Naturally, Buchanan has spent a lot of time getting close to Gilchrist. Thus, the Hindustan Times questioned Buchanan about whether he believed India’s Rishabh Pant would eventually take over Gilchrist’s long-held batting position. 

“Quite possibly,” Buchanan says. 

Buchanan said when asked if Pant could recreate what Gilchrist performed as an opener., “First of all, does he (Pant) want to do it (play as an opener)? If he wants to, and there’s a position for it, he could be a very logical choice to open the batting. He certainly takes on the game from the word go.

If he continues to play like this in T20 cricket and continues to succeed, it would really give a wonderful platform for the rest of the innings.” 

Buchanan also argued that India already had a predetermined opening pair in Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul and that if any of the two first-choice openers were to lose their starting position, Pant’s option might be explored to begin the innings more frequently. 

For Team India, Pant has mostly served as a middle/lower-middle order hitter since making his international debut in 2017. Pant is a member of India’s T20 World Cup team as well. 

Also Read: ICC T20 World Cup 2022: England’s Jonny Bairstow Ruled Out Until 2023 After Surgery