'Rishabh Pant, forget about being vice-captain of Team India': Gautam Gambhir 'must have a chat' with India keeper

"Rishabh, tu apna game khel, forget that you are the vice captain of Team India," that's the only advice India head coach Gautam Gambhir should give the wicketkeeper-batter before the five-match Test series against England, starting June 20, feels former India batter Hemang Badani. India's Rishabh Pant during a practice session ahead of the Test cricket match series against England, in UK.(@BCCI)

Pant, officially part of the leadership group for the first time, will have the task of ushering in the new era of India's Test side under captain Shubman Gill. With the retirement of R Ashwin, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, India lost the experience of nearly 300 Tests at one go. Filling that gap in in between two series is asking for Rome to be built in a day. But to the relief of India fans, they have players like Pant to bank on.

Yes, one can bank on Pant in Test cricket. He did not have the best of times in Australia earlier this year. His IPL 2025, as the most expensive player in the league's history, didn't go as LSG would have hoped for but he still is one of India's best bets with the bat every time they step onto the field wearing whites.

1681 runs in SENA countries at an average of 37.81 with centuries everywhere barring New Zealand, scream Pant's potential as a batter. Few would argue that Pant, in only the first five years of his Test career, has already played some of the best knocks by an Indian in overseas conditions.

The last Test that India played in England, Pant blasted 146 off 111 balls in the first innings where India were reduced to 98 for 5. This was his second Test century in England in as many tours. In his debut in Nottingham, seven years ago, he got off the mark with a six on the second ball that he faced in international cricket.

In the practice sessions that India have had in the lead up to the five-match Test series, Pant has shown no signs of relenting – He dented the roof in one of the stands at Lords' and sent people living nearby the Beckenham ground ducking for cover with blistering sixes.

Badani, a former India batter and now the head coach of Delhi Capitals, wants to see this version of Rishabh Pant next week, not the heavily cautious vice captain of the Indian Test side, weighed down by responsibility and expectations.

"I genuinely hope it doesn't change one bit. I think he is somebody who has found the right balance of attacking stroke-making and defensive stroke-making in this cricket. So I don't see any reason why you should try and change that," Badani told Hindustan Times in an exclusive chat.

'Gambhir should tell Pant not to think he is the vice captain': Badani

Badani said Gambhir and the Indian team management should have a chat with him before the Test series and make it clear that he should continue playing his natural game that has brought him success in red-ball cricket in the last six or seven years. He didn't become vice captain of the Indian side because he was subdued. He was chosen for a leadership role because of the sheer success he has had in Test cricket by thinking positively.

"It's important that someone like Gautam Gambhir, the head coach, has a chat with him and speaks to him and says, 'Rishabh tu apna game khel.' Don't think too hard about captaincy, vice captaincy, you're the second in command, none of that.

"There is a certain way that you've played over the years and that has worked well for you. And I think it will work well for us if he does that again, because he is a batter who comes to the bat at times when the second new ball is due," Badani added.

There may be a lot of changes in the Indian batting line-up after Rohit and Kohli's retirement but Pant is certain to bat at No.5. Badani believes he has chance to keep the opposition under pressure at that number.

"You want to keep the bowling on the mat, you want to keep them under pressure rather than keep leaving balls and let them settle down into a good line and length. It then it becomes easier for the bowler to try and pick wickets.

"He needs to think like Rishabh Pant and nothing else. The management will have a massive say in this as to how free he is as a batter. And they should give him the freedom to go and bat with utmost positivity and not hold him back. Because the only challenge is that when you see a batter isn't having the right balance, but he does have the right balance."

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