Earlier this week, when Ajit Agarkar’s selection panel met to pick the Indian teams for the one-off Test and three One-Day Internationals against Afghanistan next month, a third different vice-captain for the longest format in as many home series was installed.

Ravindra Jadeja was Shubman Gill’s deputy for the two-Test series against West Indies in October, a development stemming only because Rishabh Pant was unavailable, recovering as he was from a broken foot sustained in Manchester in July. Pant, who was the vice-captain in England, returned to that role – conferred on him for the first time before the England tour as India embarked on a new adventure in Test cricket – for the South Africa showdown and led the country in Guwahati when Gill was ruled out with a neck injury.

It wasn’t the most auspicious of captaincy debuts for the wicketkeeper-batter, who oversaw India’s heaviest defeat by runs (408) ever in the history of the five-day game. Pant himself had a match to forget as batter, dismissed for 7 and 13, the former to an ill-advised hoick against Marco Jansen in the second over after lunch on day three when his side was already on the ropes, at 105 for four in response to the visitors’ 489.

Now, it would appear as if Pant won’t be leading the country in a Test for a while to come after being stripped of his vice-captaincy, which has been conferred on K.L. Rahul. Perhaps in a tacit, roundabout, face-saving way, Agarkar and his band of wise men have acknowledged without saying it in as many words that they made a mistake by overlooking Rahul’s leadership credentials when they decided to move on from the Rohit Sharma era. Rahul is already an all-format international captain, is in his 12th year at the highest level and has plenty of top-flight cricket left in him, but it is learnt that when the selectors met ahead of the England tour to identify the next leadership group, they didn’t even so much as give the Karnataka batter a thought.

Anyway, we digress. Where does this latest development leave Pant? On the same day when he was divested of the vice-captaincy, the 28-year-old was also dumped from the 50-over squad to take on the Afghans. He is already superfluous to India’s T20I plans, not having played in that variant since July 2024; he hasn’t also figured in a 50-over international since August 2024, though he appeared to be back in favour when he was picked in the squad to play New Zealand at home this January before picking up an abdominal injury at nets before the first match which ruled him out of the entire series.

Pant has been supplanted as the second wicketkeeper in the ODI squad by Ishan Kishan, whose international comeback is gathering pace since his return to the national side ahead of the T20 World Cup earlier this year. It means the Lucknow Super Giants captain, the highest paid player in IPL history, has been pigeonholed for the time being as only a Test player, a remarkable turnaround in perception given that he made his T20I debut a good year and a half before first donning the Test cap.

It’s been a dismal year thus far for Pant. The abdominal injury was perhaps an indication of what was in store, maybe a portent of things to come, because this has been a singularly unedifying IPL campaign for Pant, both as batter and captain. In 12 innings, the still exciting left-hander has managed just 286 runs at a strike-rate of 140.19, his only half-century (68 n.o.) coming very early in the season in a winning cause against Chennai Super Kings.

He has looked laboured, out of sync and more than a little confused about what approach to embrace. Neither all-out aggression nor sporadic, maybe half-hearted, attempts at innings-building have paid off, and Pant has given the impression of having left the free spirit he has been for over a decade back in the changing room.

Under his watch, LSG have notched up just four wins from 13 outings, the sum of their parts not contributing to the larger whole. While the bowling has been reasonably up to scratch, the big batting boys didn’t come to the party until it was too late, until their fate had been sealed. Some of the decision-making has been addled and beyond belief, not least the call to send Nicholas Pooran to face Sunil Narine in the Super Over, for two reasons. One, Pooran doesn’t have the most encouraging head-to-head against the spin wizard. Two, the left-hander was in abysmal form at the time (only slightly better now) and one got the impression that Pooran for the Super Over was more out of hope and optimism than any great sense of conviction.

There is no denying the fact that these are troubled times for Pant, who no longer commands the same excitement quotient as he once did. Upstaged by the likes of Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Priyansh Arya and Abhishek Sharma, among others, Pant suddenly doesn’t enjoy the same leeway he once was accorded when he did entertainingly daft things at the batting crease. Of course, he is no longer an emerging star; he is in his tenth year as an India player, boasts more than 150 international appearances and a T20 World Cup winner’s medal and, at the risk of being repetitive, has already captained the nation.

Enormous expectations

That being said, the expectations on him continue to be enormous. He has to both entertain and deliver, a victim of the image people have of him rather than an image he has carefully cultivated. When he is at the batting crease, fans believe the falling scoop and the charge-and-clatter against the faster bowlers are de rigueur, but if he perishes while playing those very shots, he is held up as irresponsible and unwilling to play the situation. It’s a difficult cross to bear, it’s bound to impact one’s psyche. It’s at that crossroads that Pant now finds himself, with plenty of cricket still in him but apprehensive if he will get the right platforms to showcase his unquestioned brilliance.

The best of Pant was on view in England last summer, in the three-and-a-half Tests in which he featured. Centuries in both innings in Leeds (even if in a losing cause) and three further scores of more than 50 in his next five knocks, some produced with typical chutzpah and others in a more studied manner, embellished his standing as one of the premier Test wicketkeeper-batters of his generation, at the very least. The spunk, spirit, bravery and courage he showed in coming back to bat after breaking his foot and making 54 in the first innings of the Old Trafford Test was in keeping with his reputation of putting mind over matter. Popular with the opposition fans as well as with his opponents, Pant was the talk of England even though his captain and good friend amassed a stunning 754 runs and even though it was in his absence that India pulled off a magnificent series-levelling win at the Oval in early August.

Less than 10 months on, Pant has been put on tenuous notice even in Test cricket, potentially. Agarkar was quick to dismiss suggestions that there was no threat to his place in the longer format scheme of things, but if there is one thing we have learnt over the years, it is to not take these utterances at face value. “We want him (Pant) to become the best Test player that he has always been,” the former India all-rounder remarked. “I don’t think there is any concern with his spot in the Test team. I think he is one of our main batters in that line-up. (He) had a really good tour of England till he got injured. He has always been very good in Test cricket.”

That, Pant certainly has been. Since making 114 in his third appearance, at the Oval in September 2018, he has relished the challenge of the red ball, especially overseas. Six of his eight centuries have come away from home, and the showman with the sense of occasion in him surfaced in Chennai in September 2024 when, in his first Test in 22 months – many of them spent recuperation from a horror road accident in December 2022 – he smashed an extraordinary 109 in the second innings against Bangladesh. Despite scoring at 74.24 per 100 balls, he averages 42.91 from 49 matches, and his pre-eminence in the batting line-up has been recognised with a permanent No. 5 slot, which is often the bridge between the accomplished top order and the somewhat slightly less skilled lower half.

Without being uncharitable, it must be said that captaincy doesn’t seem to sit comfortably on Pant’s sturdy shoulders, captaincy not to be confused with leadership. Pant is inherently instinctive, relying primarily on gut-feel and intuition. He will remain a leader forever, especially from behind the stumps when he has the best view of the ground and is ideally placed to read angles and therefore dictate field placements. But the jury will continue to be out on whether he is cut out for captaincy, per se. One has repeatedly got the impression that Pant doesn’t entirely relish the straitjacket that accompanies the suffix of (captain), an impression that has been echoed by others who have both played for and skippered the team in Test cricket.

A footsoldier now

Pant has little control over the off-field developments that have made him a footsoldier (from deputy general not long back) all over again in Test cricket. He will also obviously be disappointed at being cast out of the 50-over line-up, but again, what can he do about it? If there is one thing he has showcased aplenty, especially in the last three and a half years, it is resilience, inner strength and a burning desire to be true and honest to himself. He knows that starting next fortnight, there are 10 Tests ahead of India between June and March, 10 opportunities for him to invoke the spirit of Pant and do the Pant things that are so unique to him. If that leads to other doors opening, so be it.

New Chandigarh will mark Pant’s 50th Test appearance, a milestone moment if there ever was one. Don’t be surprised if it is also a stepping stone, a springboard to a glorious second coming. After all, with Pant, there are no surprises anymore. Or are there?