Prior to the India vs Afghanistan one-off Test, India’s head coach, Gautam Gambhir, was asked about Rishabh Pant’s removal as India’s Test vice-captain. Gambhir didn’t beat around the bush. Indirectly, he stated that Pant had failed to read the situation on a few occasions and let the team down.
Rishabh Pant told to curb instinct?
Gambhir’s gripe probably stemmed from Pant’s dismissal in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG during the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. With the series tied at 1-1, India had to bat one session to secure a draw. 7 wickets were in hand. But, post Tea, Pant holed out to Travis Head’s part-time off-spin, and India lost the remaining 6 wickets for 34 runs to lose the match and go 1-2 down.
The Indian head coach did say the management doesn’t want Pant to change his ways. However, he contradicted himself immediately. Gambhir felt Pant hadn’t been playing the situation well and needed to adapt. Well, we saw a different Pant in Mullanpur.
He’s someone who isn’t afraid to charge Scott Boland on the first ball or reverse scoop James Anderson. But Pant didn’t hit a boundary in his first 22 balls. He dead-batted when there was no need to. It was clear that he was told to bat differently. The wicketkeeper batter has 8 hundreds at a strike rate of 74.05.
Sitanshu Kotak contradicts Gautam Gambhir
Yet, against a weak Afghanistan bowling lineup, Pant scored 81 runs at 66.94. Only KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav had a lower strike rate than him on a pitch where India scored 564 runs at 4.44. So, it was clear that Pant was holding himself back. But India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak refutes that. He says that the management or Gambhir didn’t say anything to Pant about changing his batting style.
“I think as a team, when the entire team decides that everyone will play their own game… everyone should play their game 100 per cent; freely play your game,” Kotak told reporters in Mullanpur.
He explained how Pant tackles bowlers by attacking them. Something he didn’t do often in the India vs Afghanistan Test. But Kotak assures everyone that he wasn’t told to be more mindful and curb his aggressive instinct.
“He (Rishabh) tries to play with the mind of the bowlers, and he will do something which the bowler has not expected. So that is how he bats. I don’t think that in this match, or when he went out to bat, there was any question of the situation or that anyone told him to play in a certain way,” he added.
Rishabh Pant’s slowest 50+ knocks in Test cricket
| Runs | Balls Faced | Strike Rate | Innings | Opposition | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 106 | 47.16 | 3 | England | The Oval | 2 Sep 2021 |
| 89* | 138 | 64.49 | 4 | Australia | Brisbane | 15 Jan 2021 |
| 74 | 112 | 66.07 | 2 | England | Lord’s | 10 Jul 2025 |
| 57 | 86 | 66.27 | 3 | England | Birmingham | 1 Jul 2022 |
| 81 | 121 | 66.94 | 1 | Afghanistan | New Chandigarh | 6 Jun 2026 |
| 92 | 134 | 68.65 | 2 | West Indies | Hyderabad | 12 Oct 2018 |
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India batting coach contradicts Gambhir, says Rishabh Pant was told to bat freely in IND vs AFG Test
