Rishabh Pant is India’s greatest ever wicketkeeper batter in Test cricket and could go down as the greatest ever by the time he ends his career. Still only 27, the left-hander has wrote and re-wrote records, the latest being his epic twin centuries in Headingley. However to compare him only to the likes of MS Dhoni and Adam Gilchrist would be selling him short. Pant’s is not just a wicketkeeper who scores runs. He scores runs. Like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and others have done in the past.
Rishabh Pant deserves to be in the Rohit-Virat bracket
Leeds was proof that Pant is not just another wicketkeeper who can bat. The left-hander now has 8 tons, alongside 7 scores in the 90s, in his 44 match career. The 27-year-old averages 44.44 in the longest format, with more than 3000 runs. For all the comparisons with Adam Gilchrist, the Australian was 27 when he made his Test debut. Dhoni who played 90 Tests, scored a total of 6 centuries. None of them came overseas, while 7 of Pant’s 8 tons came abroad.
Wicketkeeping in Test cricket is a specialist role. WTC champions South Africa have Kyle Verreynne playing keeper batting at 7. Alex Carey for Australia, Kusal Mendis for Sri Lanka, Tom Blundell for New Zealand. Pant’s opposite number, Jamie Smith for England, also bats at No.7. As for Pant, he dovetails as a middle order specialist, allowing for balance and options to his captain.
Pant meanwhile has made the No.5 position his own. The left-hander has played at that number in 19 Tests, scoring 1553 runs at a mind boggling average of 59.73. He has 9 fifties and 4 centuries in 28 innings, scoring more than 50 in every other innings. Even Virat in his heyday as captain averaged 54 in a much easier era for batting. While the Kohli’s sample size is higher, Pant’s heroics are not to be dismissed.
‘Pant is reinventing the game as a batter’
He is the only Indian among the Top 20 run getters in Test cricket since the start of 2020. Pant is at 14, despite having missed more than 18 months of cricket due to an accident. The 27-year-old underwent extensive surgery. He had to learn how to walk. And now he is changing how the game is played.
“The beauty of it (Pant’s batting) is that he gets his runs at a very fast rate, which gives you time to win cricket matches. His was a phenomenal performance – some of the shots that he played probably weren’t in the MCC coaching manual when I last looked at it. He is reinventing the game as a batsman,” former Australia captain Greg Chappell told Cricbuzz.
Pant has Test centuries in Australia, England and South Africa. He played key roles in India’s victory at the Gabba and gave them a shot in both Edgbaston (2022) and Leeds (2025). The 27-year-old is forging his own legacy, setting his footprint of the game. He might not have the classy cover drive of Virat or the pull from Rohit Sharma. But for now, Pant’s falling scoop shot is enough to put him on the path to greatness.
