Is Rishabh Pant the future skipper?

Rishabh Pant

Fortune favours the brave as the saying goes, and in cricket, misfortune of your teammate can sometimes bring you unexpected fortune. Or else, who would have thought ― not years, but just few months back ― that Rishabh Pant would be leading an international game for his country and that too on his home ground?

Virat Kohli was forced to relinquish the captaincy from all formats in January this year, and in Rohit Sharma’s absence, the selectors were grooming KL Rahul as the future captain. Add to that, Pant had a terrible season, both as a player and as captain in the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL), with the man and the captain who impressed the most in that tournament being Hardik Pandya. The Baroda all-rounder was making his comeback in the national team after the T20 World Cup in 2021.

So, it did seem like the stars were either aligning for Pant to make his captaincy debut much earlier than even the likes of MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, or as they say that when someone is destined to get something, he or she will get it, no matter what.

Pant may not have expected his T20 captaincy debut against South Africa so early, but it could be equally true that he may not have been entirely shocked either with the instant elevation under forced circumstances. Even before turning 19, the Delhi lad has gone through typical highs and lows of any promising cricketing career. One of the still-kept-secrets of Indian cricket, Pant was strangely overlooked for India Under 19’s captain during the 2016 World Cup (incidentally Rahul Dravid was coach of that team as well!), but his 24-ball 75 blitzkrieg was the talk of the tournament by virtue of being the fastest half-century of the tournament. Soon he was playing for Delhi Daredevils in the IPL and also became a regular feature in Delhi's domestic circuit so much that by the end of the season he was captain for the one-day format of the game. Despite leading Delhi in Ranji trophy, Pant was sacked unceremoniously in typical DDCA style for none other than Unmukt Chand!

However, establishing himself in the Indian team across formats was Pant’s burning desire and not to get bogged down by the additional responsibilities of captaincy. Things have changed dramatically for Pant. He is being seen as a ferocious match winner in Test cricket and a formidable talent in white ball formats, even if his numbers don’t do any justice to his talent. However, the selectors are not going by the numbers alone, but with the hunch. And the same goes with his captaincy. No less a figure than Ricky Ponting has backed him to the hilt despite a poor IPL in 2022.

“No doubt in my mind that Rishabh is the right person (to lead the side)],” the head coach of DC had said after Delhi’s campaign ended on a disappointing note. “He is still a very young man. He is still learning about the captaincy side of things,” said the former Australian captain, who has no doubts whatsoever that Pant should continue in the role.

These are early days for Pant the captain (whether in IPL or in India colours) but inevitable comparisons with Dhoni is something he will always have to confront. Dhoni was natural as an international captain even without any previous captaincy experience at the domestic level. In contrast, Pant is a learner and work-in-progress. Pant’s tactical moves in IPL have come under heavy criticism.

For instance, not completing spinner Kuldeep Yadav’s four-over spell when he was mesmerising the opposition. Or gambling too much on the bowling skills of Lalit Yadav or his strange handling of Shardul Thakur as bowler. In 2021, his handling of R Ashwin was eerily similar. However, IPL alone can’t be the criteria to judge a captain, as this is a tournament where most teams have the assembly of coaches, strategists and analysts. No one knows how much credit or criticism a captain should get. Throughout his career, Dhoni famously relied on his instincts and it served him well, while Kohli was found wanting tactically even when he was winning more games than anyone else in Indian history.

Maybe, India needs to be patient with Pant the captain as well. It made his life difficult when the giant shadow of Dhoni was still around him. Luckily, Pant will have time to learn and evolve as he will be not an automatic choice as the successor of Rohit Sharma when everyone is fit and available. The evolution of Rohit Sharma (incidentally, he too was singled out by Ponting in 2013 when he was the captain of Mumbai Indians) from a fine IPL captain to a natural successor for Kohli is the template which can be applied in Pant’s case as well.

Except for Dinesh Karthik (who has made a comeback after a gap of two years and at the age of 38) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (seemingly in the last leg of his international career) in the current squad, the Indian team being led by Rishabh Pant is the team of the future.

The only thing that Pant needs to be exceptionally mindful of is that his batting form shouldn’t take a beating with this new responsibility of leading the team. As we have seen that the pressure of captaincy did affect his batting form for DC in this IPL.

Even if his numbers (an average of 30.9 at a strike-rate of 151.8) look decent, the alarming and often ignored point is that he failed to score a half-century in IPL 2022. There aren’t too many exceptional or match-winning innings like his Test career in the white ball formats either.

Statistically, Pant is the fifth-best captain in IPL history with a win percentage of 56.6. The 30 games spread over two seasons of IPL are perhaps not the empirical evidence to judge his potential as captain but not too many teams in IPL tolerate back-to-back seasons without a trophy, with the exception of Kohli’s Royal Challengers, Bangalore.

If Pant has to fulfil his ambition of leading India in future, his ground work will begin from IPL. The five-match series against South Africa is just an unanticipated gift which can help him bolster his case for future.