If we had to pick one player who is the most flamboyant of the current Indian lot, Rishabh Pant would be one player most of you would agree.

The story of Rishabh Pant and his meteoric rise in the world of cricket and on the Indian cricket team is straight out of a Bollywood blockbuster.

Known to be a free-spirited player, Rishab Pant as a batsman with his unorthodox style of batsmanship does not fail to impress you; behind the stumps, he is probably the chirpiest of the lot.

His on-field commentary behind the stumps entertains not only his teammates but also the batsman taking strike.

Pant’s Meteoric rise in World Cricket

U19 Days

Rishab Pant was the vice-captain of the India U-19 team at the 2016 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. Indian Team were the runners-up that year.

People stood up and noticed this young talent when Rishabh was playing U-19 cricket for Delhi against Assam. Pant top-scored with 35 in his first innings and then hit 150 in the second innings.

During the 2016 Under-19 Cricket World Cup, Pant hit an 18-ball fifty against Nepal, the fastest at this level.

Domestic Career 

Rishabh plays for the Delhi Ranji Team and in the IPL plays for the Delhi Capitals, now as captain and wicketkeeper-batsman.

Playing against Maharashtra in the 2016-17 Ranji season, Pant scored 308 runs in an innings making him the third youngest Indian to score a triple century in first-class cricket.

Pant also scored the fastest century (48 balls).

It did not take much time for the Delhi Cricket Board to appoint him as captain for the Delhi team taking over the reins from Gautam Gambhir.

Today Gautam Gambhir is the current Head Coach of India.

Pant also scored the second fastest T20 in the following year in the Zonal T20 Tournament.

International Debut

Pant made his international debut in 2017 in the T20 format against England and a year later debuted in Test Cricket against the same opposition.

One of the highlights of his Test Debut was his first ball Six in his debut innings to Jimmy Anderson.

His impressive Debut in Test earned him a place in the ODI format in following month against West Indies.

Out of the Three formats, Rishabh Pant has excelled in the longest format which is similar to the career graph of another Delhi Legend, Virender Sehwag.

A Stroke maker and an unorthodox style of batting did not come in the way of his success in Test.

He was also awarded the ICC Men’s Emerging Cricketer of the year in 2018. Pant became the fastest wicketkeeper for India to reach 1,000 runs in Test cricket.

The Slump in form

With an excellent platform to his debut in all three formats, everything looked bright for this southpaw but a sudden drop in form saw him lose his limited over spot to KL Rahul.

Alternatives started to haunt Pant’s position in the team with Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson also doing well in IPL and other tournaments.

But the bad form was not long term and it was Test Cricket that brought Rishabh Pant back as India’s first-choice Wicketkeeper batsman.

The Redemption

The redemption of the southpaw came against Australia in the 2020-21 Border Gavaskar Series in Australia.

In the Sydney Test, Rishabh Pant known for his attacking form of cricket, played a watchful innings to play out 97 overs in the last day to draw the match and kept the series alive for India. Pant scored 98 and had a 148-run partnership.

In the Gabba Test that followed, Rishabh Pant played a match-winning knock of an unbeaten 89 helping India to win the series in Australia.

Pant also got a place in the ICC Test Team of the year – 2021

Rishabh Pant’s accident that threatened both his life and cricket career

Life took an unexpected ugly turn for the flamboyant player when Rishabh had a near-fatal car crash in 2022. Though he survived the crash, his injuries were grave and there was little chance of him making a comeback to full fitness and being back in the Indian dressing room.

The Recovery was painstakingly long and Rishabh lost 2 years of cricket.

The resurgence of the new Pant

With Rishabh Pant out of action due to his near-death accident, Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, and Sanju Samson all got a fair chance to prove themselves to the playing eleven.

With Multiple operations on his feet, there was scepticism about whether Rishabh Pant would ever be the same.

All eyes were set on Rishabh Pant on his IPL return this year. While he was expected to play a few matches, Delhi Capitals surprised everyone by naming him the captain for the entire season.

Similar backing came from BCCI, who announced that if Rishabh Pant declares himself fit, then he can directly enter India’s T20 squad for the T20 World Cup.

World Cup Winner

During the T20 World Cup, though rusty to begin with, Rishabh Pant improved himself with every game and this was a great sight for every Indian fan.

Rishabh played all the games. Though he got out without scoring in the finals, his contribution to the tournament was noteworthy. India went on to lift the T20 World Cup 2024.

All format wicket keeper? Not yet there …but a bright future ahead!

While Rishabh Pant did manage to play all games in the IPL and the World Cup, selectors and coaches felt that it was too premature to play him in all formats of the game.

Post the World Cup, with Rohit and Virat retiring from the T20 Squad, Rishabh will now be part of the leadership group.

While he is India’s best player in the Test arena, his fitness will be gauged before the selectors gives a go-ahead to play the longer format games.

While Rishabh has returned with a more technically sound game, it will be a while before Rishabh becomes India’s all-format wicketkeeper.

The current Sri Lanka series will be a litmus test for the southpaw if he is considered for selection for the upcoming 50-over Champions Trophy to be held in the early half of 2025.