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Rishabh Pant has retained his place in the Test team, but only as a keeper-batsman, not as vice-captain. He was the vice-captain of the Indian Test cricket team, but now, the team management has appointed KL Rahul as the new vice-captain of captain Shubman Gill for the one-off Test against Afghanistan.
The inclusion of the southpaw was a surprise decision by the team management on the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel, as he is still considered one of the most exciting elements in the Whites.
Rishabh Pant lost the role of vice-captain in Tests
In general, Rishabh Pant’s batting style matches well with the Twenty20 format, where batsmen need to score runs at a consistent pace. Former Team India cricketer Mohammad Kaif believes that the team management should keep faith in the keeper-batsman.
Mohammad Kaif came out in support of Rishabh Pant while discussing India’s Test squad for the one-off match against Afghanistan. The former cricketer claims that the keeper-batsman has not done anything wrong in the format so far.
Pant-led LSG’s IPL 2026 season hasn’t been spectacular
Pant is not enjoying a torrid season with Lucknow Supergiants in the current IPL season. Neither the team nor the captain performed well in the campaign. They are already out of the title race.
However, Kaif points out that there are different levels of ball play in the limited overs format and Test cricket. If someone is judged based on a completely different format, it may lead to a wrong decision.
Kaif personally believes that there is no bigger match-winner than Rishabh Pant in the longest format of cricket due to his aggressive and unpredictable batting tendencies.
Pant did nothing wrong: Mohammad Kaif
“Rishabh Pant has done nothing wrong. Test matches, red-ball cricket and white-ball cricket are completely different formats. You can judge someone on the basis of IPL – thinking, ‘Yes, he is not doing a good job as a captain, his team is losing, and he is not scoring runs himself’ – I personally believe that, even today.”
“There is no bigger match-winner with the bat in Test match cricket than Rishabh Pant. I am talking specifically about the Test match format here. It is easy for people to overlook this difference and that creates problems,” Mohammad Kaif said on Geostar.
After making his debut in the format in 2018, the Delhi-born player has played 49 matches in Tests so far, and has scored 3476 runs at a batting average of 42.91, including a highest innings of 159 not out. In the last year, he played 7 Tests, 4 against England, a few against South Africa and one against Australia.
Pant was one of the mainstays of the series against the Australia and England national cricket teams. Against England at Leeds, the middle-order batsman recorded two centuries in both innings of a Test match. He also achieved three fifty-plus innings during India’s tour of England in 2025.
Read more: Shubman Gill’s role in Auqib Nabi’s Afghanistan Test defeat finally revealed