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Follow UsRishabh Pant’s red-ball return: will he keep wickets?
It’s been 617 days since Pant last donned the whites at any level, but the wait is all set to end.
Having successfully made his way back into both the T20 and 50-over cricket, Pant’s red-ball return is imminent as he braces to play first-class cricket for the first time in nearly two years, in the forthcoming Duleep Trophy season.
There is no question that Pant will walk right back into the Test side. He has already been integrated back into both T20Is and ODIs, so it is a given that he will walk right back into his best format.
However, the Duleep Trophy will probably tell us whether he’ll return as a wicketkeeper or just a specialist batter.
As much as the management will be tempted to throw Pant right back in as a keeper — something that’ll give the side incredible balance — they’ll also be aware not to rush him back, at least for the home season. The goal, at this point in time, will be to make sure he’s 100% by the time the Border-Gavaskar Trophy comes around.
What will be interesting to see, hence, is if Pant will keep wickets for India ‘B’.
Should he play as a specialist batter, that’ll probably be a giveaway that he will not keep wickets against Bangladesh. And India ‘B’ can afford Pant to play as a specialist batter thanks to the presence of Narayan Jagadeesan in the squad.
In the scenario that Pant keeps wickets for India ‘B’ — which looks very likely — then the management would probably use the first round to evaluate his fitness and decide whether he’s ready to start keeping wickets in Tests for the national side, full time.
But wicketkeeper or otherwise, rest assured Pant *will* return to the Test side.
Added pressure on Dhruv Jurel to perform
Standing opposite Pant, representing India ‘A’, will be Dhruv Jurel. And he will be playing for India ‘A’ alongside another fellow contender in KL Rahul.
If we are to go by what he did against England — 190 runs @ 63.33, all under pressure, while being flawless with the gloves — then Jurel should be a nailed-on starter against Bangladesh.
But there will likely be space for only two among Pant, Jurel and Rahul in the first XI, and Jurel is currently last in the pecking order due to the track record of the other two.
Needless to say, there is next to no chance India will leave out either Pant or Rahul in Tests with the BGT coming up; the two are expected to be batting trump cards in Australia at No.5 and No.6.
The onus will hence be on Jurel to rack up massive runs with the bat in order to retain his spot in the squad, let alone the starting XI.
The 23-year-old getting into the squad for the Bangladesh series might very well depend on Pant’s keeping fitness, regardless of what he does in the Duleep Trophy.
Can Gill pick up from where he left against England?
After twin failures in the first Test against England in Hyderabad, it looked like Shubman Gill might very well get dropped from the Test side. On the back of the golden duck in the second innings in Hyderabad, the 24-year-old’s Test average read 29.52 after 21 games.
But Gill turned it around spectacularly and finished the series as the second-highest run-getter (452 runs), hammering two tons and two fifties.
There’s been a six-month-long break from red-ball cricket for Gill, but India would want the right-hander to pick up from where he left off and hit the ground running because of the huge winter that lies ahead.
It is worth pointing out that the last few months have been disappointing for Gill. He had a horror outing against Sri Lanka in ODIs - 57 runs at an average of 19.00 and SR of 61.29 - and was also far from fluent in the seven T20Is he played (against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe), despite averaging over 40.00.
The last thing both Gill and India would want is his red-ball career hitting another roadblock. A big showing here in the Duleep Trophy will put him in good stead ahead of the home season.
R Sai Kishore’s chance to impress on the big stage
You can say this about a lot of cricketers in India but R Sai Kishore is someone who would genuinely have at least five Test caps by now had he been born in any other country.
For the last half a decade, Sai Kishore has been one of the best bowlers in the domestic circuit, reflected by his average of 24.01 and strike rate of 51.9.
But even by his high standards, the Tamil Nadu skipper had a remarkable Ranji season in 2023/24, picking 53 wickets at 18.52 a piece.
He has already begun the 2024/25 season on an exceptional note, having taken 17 wickets @ 12.53 in the ongoing Buchi Babu invitational tournament, including an eight-wicket match haul against a strong Mumbai batting line-up that included Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Sarfaraz Khan and Musheer Khan among others.
The forthcoming Duleep Trophy provides a real opportunity for the TN skipper to announce himself on a very big stage and put him right in the mix for Test selection. It might not happen immediately, but there’s every chance that the 27-year-old could end up leapfrogging Axar in red-ball cricket, in terms of the pecking order, very soon.
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