Pant’s omission from ODI squad defies logic, selection re-confirms Rohit’s first-choice status

The selection meeting to pick the squads for the three ODIs and five T20Is against the West Indies was done virtually and there was no press conference. With chief selector Ajit Agarkar addressing the media, one of the first questions probably would have been on the omission of Rishabh Pant from the ODI squad despite Ishan Kishan’s unavailability because of his Asian Games duty. Has Pant become so bad that he is not even the third-choice wicketkeeper-batsman — behind KL Rahul and Ishan — in the 50-over format? If so, how do you judge it?

Pant has 871 runs in 31 ODIs at an average of 33.50. Just one century, also, is pretty underwhelming. It’s a pale shadow of his Test exploits, where he is world-class. But he wasn’t given an opportunity to prove his mettle in this format for more than two years before being dumped unceremoniously. Dhruv Jurel pipping him to the squad has relegated Pant to a one-format cricketer. He will lead the Rest of India team against the Ranji Trophy champions Jammu & Kashmir in the upcoming Irani Cup.

Last Saturday, RevSportz did a news story on the ODI squad selection for the series against the West Indies that starts on September 27. With several first-choice players away for the Asian Games, it mentioned the possible replacements. By and large, it was on the money, with Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mohammed Siraj and Ravindra Jadeja getting picked. That Pant’s inclusion will allow the team to have a left-hander in the top five, which otherwise has an overload of right-handers, was the cricketing logic. No disrespect to Jurel, who ostensibly has been rewarded for his bright form in Tests in Sri Lanka and for India A, Pant’s omission defied logic.

According to sources, some selectors were mulling on bringing Pant back to the fold. So eventually, who took the call? Was it the team management?

Jadeja’s return to the ODI set-up can be looked at two different ways — it’s just a stop-gap arrangement to make up for the unavailability of the players and the injury of Harsh Dubey, who is recovering from a hamstring niggle. On the other side, with an eye on the 2027 World Cup, where the conditions will not be completely batting friendly, maybe the veteran all-rounder is still in the scheme of things by dint of his skill set and experience.

Hardik Pandya was never going to be considered for this series, as the selectors wanted to have a look at him first in the one-dayers against Australia A. Nitish Kumar Reddy has been picked to play against the Caribbeans. “Nitish Kumar Reddy, who was originally included in the Asian Games squad, has been withdrawn and will feature in the ODI series against the West Indies,” said the BCCI press release.

Also, the squad selection consolidated Rohit Sharma’s status as India’s first-choice opener in the ODIs, putting a lid on the speculation about his future. If Rohit continues to perform the way he has been doing, nobody can touch him.

Auqib Nabi and Naman Dhir have earned their maiden ODI call-ups.

Meanwhile, the BCCI has confirmed that Vipraj Nigam will replace the injured Varun Chakravarthy in the Asian Games squad. Akash Deep, on the other hand, will return to competitive cricket, in the Irani Cup, subject to fitness clearance.

India’s ODI Squad: Shubman Gill [C], Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KL Rahul [VC, WK], Dhruv Jurel [WK], Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Mohammed Siraj, Auqib Nabi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Naman Dhir

India’s T20I Squad: Shreyas Iyer [C], Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan [WK], Sanju Samson [WK], Tilak Varma [VC], Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav

Rest of India Squad: Rishabh Pant [C, WK], Sanat Sangwan, Shikhar Mohan, Sudip Gharami, Sarfaraz Khan [VC], Smaran Ravichandran, Manav Suthar, Saransh Jain, Akash Deep*, Mukesh Kumar, Mukesh Choudhary, Aryan Juyal [WK], Aryan Pandey, Anukul Roy, Ayush Doseja

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