Rishabh Pant's White-Ball Future in Jeopardy as Selectors Make Decisions
Rishabh Pant’s career has rarely followed a straight line. Now, it has taken another sharp turn.
Left out of India’s ODI squad for the upcoming three-match series against the West Indies, Pant has instead been handed the captaincy of the Rest of India side for the Irani Cup. Two very different doors, one player standing in the middle. The message from the selectors, Aakash Chopra believes, could not be clearer.
This selection committee has made up its mind, the former India opener told Jio Star, framing Pant as “a very strange and very unique case.”
A Pillar in Tests, a Passenger in ODIs
Pant’s stock in Test cricket remains strong. He is back as a key figure in the red-ball set-up, even if the vice-captain’s armband has been taken away. The Irani Cup captaincy underlines that status. India still see him as a long-format match-winner, someone they want leading a group of fringe and emerging red-ball hopefuls.
Chopra underlined that contrast. On one hand, Pant is trusted to lead Rest of India. On the other, he has slipped completely out of the ODI frame.
In ODI cricket, without playing, he’s been bid goodbye, Chopra said, summing up the brutal clarity of the call.
Pant’s numbers and opportunities tell their own story. He has never truly nailed down a permanent place in India’s 50-over side and has played just one ODI in the last four years. After India’s 2024 T20 World Cup triumph, he was also dropped from the T20I squad. Now, as India quietly begin to build towards the 2027 ODI World Cup, the door in white-ball cricket seems to be closing rather than creaking open.
New Faces, New Cycle
The West Indies ODIs, starting September 27 in Thiruvananthapuram, are officially another bilateral series. Unofficially, they are the start of a new World Cup cycle.
Shubman Gill will lead India in the three ODIs, with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli still part of the 15-member squad as senior anchors in a transitioning group. KL Rahul has been named vice-captain, stepping into the role vacated by Shreyas Iyer, who will instead head to the Asian Games as part of a different India squad.
Behind the stumps, Pant’s absence opens the field. Dhruv Jurel is among the wicketkeeping options, a sign of how aggressively India are testing depth in every department.
The schedule is relentless. After the ODIs in Thiruvananthapuram (September 27), Guwahati (September 30) and New Chandigarh’s Mullanpur (October 3), the focus moves to five T20Is in Lucknow (October 6), Ranchi (October 9), Indore (October 11), Hyderabad (October 14) and Bengaluru (October 17). White-ball auditions will run through the tour; Pant, conspicuously, will be watching from the outside.
A Battle for 2027 Seats
Chopra sees this series as the first real sorting of names for the 2027 World Cup reserves list.
You have to think about who you can take along as reserves for the World Cup, he said. So, there will be a toss-up here between Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad, who are both part of this team, and whenever they’ve played, they’ve scored a lot of runs. So, I’m looking at an opportunity opening up for one of these two.
That contest at the top of the order could define the early phase of this cycle. Both Jaiswal and Gaikwad have piled up runs when chances have come. Both fit the modern ODI template. Every innings now doubles as a World Cup trial.
Chopra also flagged fast bowler Auqib Nabi as a potential breakout story if he finally gets his cap.
Auqib Nabi has been travelling with the team for some time now but isn’t getting a chance to play in the XI. If he gets his opportunity, I’ll be quite excited to see him perform, he said.
That one line captures the mood of this series: opportunity, not reputation, will drive selection.
Pant at the Crossroads
For Pant, the picture is brutally split.
On the red-ball side, India are “very serious about Rishabh playing a huge role in the longer format,” as Chopra put it. The Irani Cup captaincy is not a consolation prize; it is a responsibility. It signals that the team management still want his attacking instincts and leadership to shape the next phase of India’s Test cricket.
On the white-ball side, the silence is louder than any statement. No place in ODIs. No place in T20Is. No indication of a short-term route back.
Pant has made a career out of defying scripts, from Sydney to Brisbane and beyond. The question now is stark: in a World Cup cycle already moving on without him, can he force his way back into India’s white-ball story, or has the next generation already claimed his seat?
