Pant has scored only 204 runs at a strike-rate of 128.30 this season. | Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini

Cheteshwar Pujara finds it completely baffling that a quality batter like Rishabh Pant has not exactly been able to replicate his Test cricket exploits in the IPL arena where the southpaw’s record has been pretty ordinary.

While Pant remains India’s first-choice wicketkeeper-batter in red-ball cricket, he has lost ground when it comes to white-ball cricket. He is no more a part of the T20I side despite being a T20 World Cup winner in 2024, and remains second-choice in ODIs after KL Rahul.

Pant over the years has played 134 IPL games, scoring 3,757 runs with two centuries and 20 fifties at a strike-rate of 146 which is slightly below par for a top-four batter. In 49 Tests, he has scored 3,476 runs with eight centuries and 18 fifties with three figure scores in England, Australia, South Africa.

“I am also very surprised because someone like Rishabh Pant who can attack any bowler in Test cricket and his IPL, when we just look at the stats, it is not as good as in Test cricket,” Pujara told reporters in an interaction on Wednesday.

“I think it is the mindset thing also. There has to be some more clarity in the way Rishabh plays,” he said. “I still feel that someone like Pant, who is a quality batter (and) can play all three formats of the game, his record in T20 cricket should be a lot better than what it reflects,” Pujara said.

The former India batter said some clarity is certainly needed as far as Pant’s batting is concerned in the IPL. Having started the IPL this year wanting to bat in the top-order, Pant has returned to middle after a few disappointing outings.

“Technically, I don’t see a lot of changes which is needed in Rishabh’s batting. It’s just the mindset,” Pujara said.

“It’s also clarity of thoughts, clarity in what he needs to do when he walks in to bat and the kind of shots he should play because in Test cricket, he knows that these are his areas and even if the field is kept on the fence, he still picks the right pockets to hit the shots.”

While Pujara said Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya will have to analyse if the captaincy burden is affecting his performance or not, the former India batter said it certainly is not working out for Pant.

“I mean, they (Pandya and Pant) are the ones who can answer that but sometimes yes, it can affect. Especially in the case of Rishabh Pant, if he is focusing more on his game, that will definitely help him because we have seen that captainship hasn’t been helping him a lot.

“But it is always his personal decision whether he wants to continue as a leader or the franchise looks at another leader and if Rishabh Pant plays as a player will his performance get better? If it does, then I’m sure he should do that, but it is always a personal call,” Pujara added.

Pujara, however, defended India T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav’s struggles with the bat saying consistency is over-rated in the IPL.

“Consistency is overrated I\in a T20 format and I’m not denying, Surya’s performance hasn’t been great,” Pujara said.

“Yes, it can definitely improve but you are playing a role for the team in a T20 format. If you are walking in and scoring say an eight-ball 20 runs and if it’s helping the team and you are getting out, you are not looking at that individual performance.

“Because sometimes our expectation is for a player to get 40-50-60 whatever that higher number is but the impact which you bring in a team is more important than the number of runs you get,” Pujara added.

Published on May 06, 2026