Rishabh Pant is a compulsive risk-taker, a perpetual rollercoaster rider and an enigma who toggles between “stupid, stupid, stupid” and “superb, superb, superb”. He is a special batting talent with an uncanny knack for frustrating coaches and selectors.
Recently, during the South Africa Test series that India lost, the wicket-keeper cum stand-in captain, true to his reputation, had coaches pulling their hair out after he played the kind of stroke that clearly indicated brain-fade. There were repercussions. As collateral damage, his Test misgivings resulted in him not making it to the T20 World Cup that starts at home next month. And it’s been said that his place in the ODI team too is in doubt.
That’s life for batsmen living on the edge. They take calculated risks and also gamble to ace odds. These batting buccaneers keep burying the good old ethos of batting to build their own creed. That bargain comes with consequences, as Rishabh would have realised. But then he can’t help it; he is a compulsive stroke-maker. Rishabh belongs to the Cult of Speed and is not too different from the early die-hard fighter jocks taking to the skies to break the sound barrier. Historians say those pioneer aviators would opt to crash and die rather than slow down or eject out.
Rishabh isn’t alone. There is a growing tribe of young players in world cricket who keep pushing the envelope, never compromising on their ultra-aggressive batting approach. England has a couple – Harry Brook and Jamie Smith, Australia used to have one in Sam Konstas. In India too the youngsters are joining the Carefree Club. The Next Big Batsman, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, the 14-year-old who hit the first ball he faced in IPL into the stands, is the poster boy of this entertaining brand of batting and is expected to be a role model for other potential members of this Cult.
Interestingly, the wicket-keeper who has taken Rishabh’s place, Ishan Kishan, is also not too different from him. Same skill-set, similar temperament, both in their late 20s; Ishan also loves courting danger. But is Ishan a better bet than Rishabh or is this the case of the former being more suited for T20s and latter for Tests? Not quite, this is a curious case.
Both wicket-keepers have represented India in all formats. They have had many glorious days where they have been hailed as daredevil heroes. And also an equal number of off-days, if not more, when they are painted as villains for dancing down the track only to miss the ball or getting out to a hideous hoick.
Their incredible highs notwithstanding, both have been periodically written off. But they have, without fail, kept bouncing back to prove the world wrong. So how did the weighing scale swing towards Ishan during the T20 World Cup selection meeting? Recency bias, maybe.
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Towards the end of 2025, few of Rishabh’s bouts of brain-fade coincided with Ishan’s purple patch domestically. Fate timed their dramatically fluctuating fortunes such that Rishabh’s dip came just around the time Ishan was riding the wave. In a few months’ time, the trend could change but as of January 2026, Ishan’s stock is up.
About six months back, the Rishabh script was peaking. During the England tour, when he had walked to bat with a fractured toe, he was called the warrior who could do no wrong. Before that, he had scored 2 hundreds, 3 fifties. Finally, he was showing consistency, even though he had batted like he had always done. Obviously, pre-meditation was part of his on-the-crease batting routine. Commentators took punts on when he would charge out of the crease – mostly it was on the second or third ball he faced but once it was the first one too. India were winning, Rishabh was calling the cards perfectly.
In England, it all looked charming, but against South Africa, Rishabh’s luck ran out and it started to get ugly. Recency bias would set in and Rishabh would suffer the same fate as other frustratingly talented players. Had Rishabh not messed up against South Africa in Tests, he might have even made it to the World Cup team.
In the last edition that India won, the wicket-keeper had played a few useful hands, including a blinder against Pakistan on those dodgy American pitches. Even after Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli had gotten out, he continued to go for his shots, scoring 42 from 31 balls to be the team’s top scorer. He was in a similar situation against South Africa in Tests, but this time he couldn’t hit out of trouble.
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Rishabh’s career trajectory should be a lesson for other batsmen on speed. They need to know that batting greats with long careers don’t get caught in the risk-reward conundrum. Ishan needs to decide if he wants to be the next Rishabh or the greatest wicket-keeper who could smash the ball, Adam Gilchrist. Closer home, Virender Sehwag too was a carefree batsman but when he went to battle, he carried both – a sword and a shield.
