Twitter Reactions: Rishabh Pant axed from India's ODI and T20I squads for Australia tour

The selectors preferred Sanju Samson as the second keeper in T20Is.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

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4 Min Read

Rishabh Pant
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Rishabh Pant. (Photo by Pankaj Nangia/India Today Group/Getty Images)

The BCCI, on Monday evening, announced India squad for the upcoming Australia tour. The new selection panel led by Sunil Joshi took some tough decisions and the selection seemed to have made based on the performances in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). While the KKR spinner Varun Chakravarthy got his maiden call-up in the T20Is, Rishabh Pant has been left out of the limited-overs squads for the tour.

This comes as a shocking development as the southpaw has been rated highly by the experts and was even backed by the Indian management for a long time. However, KL Rahul emerging as the wicketkeeper-batsman in the limited overs format has led to his downfall it seems. Moreover, his form in the ongoing IPL has not been great either.

Rishabh Pant has so far scored 217 runs in eight matches for Delhi Capitals in the IPL 2020 at an average of 31. He hasn’t scored even a single half-century so far with the best score of only 38. Even on New Zealand tour, he didn’t play a single limited-overs despite being in the squad.

Rishabh Pant in ODIs and T20Is for India

As far as his ODI and T20I career is concerned, Rishabh Pant has struggled in the last few months when international cricket was played. He has so far featured in 16 ODIs and 27 T20Is mustering only 374 and 410 runs respectively. He averages only 26.71 in the 50-over format and has scored only a solitary half-century. In the shortest format, Pant averages a meagre 20.5 with two fifties to his name.

However, the left-hander has been picked in the Test squad as India will lock horns against Australia in four matches to retain the Border Gavaskar Trophy. Rishabh Pant did well down under last time and was rather the second-highest run-getter of the team. He was also preferred ahead of Wriddhiman Saha in New Zealand earlier this year and it might happen again.

Meanwhile, the fans are dejected with the 23-year-old being axed from the limited-overs teams and feel that his confidence will be shattered with this decision. It remains to be seen if the selectors or the captain have had a conversation with Rishabh Pant over his axing from ODIs and T20Is.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

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