In 2024, Rishabh Pant will return to India’s T20I and ODI team, and now he will finally come back into Test cricket. The 26-year-old has not featured in Test cricket since December 2022, when Bangladesh toured New Zealand before he was involved in a serious car accident, which saw him spend more than a year out of cricket.
Otherwise, the Indian selectors have preferred Pant for the Indian limited over-squads based on his remarkable IPL 2024 campaign and his World T20 triumph earlier this year.
The three-match series against New Zealand will now come to an end before three T20Is and three ODIs against Australia, and now that the next Test assignment for India is a two-match series against Bangladesh at home next month, the selectors led by Ajit Agarkar might be planning Pant’s return into the Test format.
The selectors are eyeing to provide Pant an opportunity to play in the Duleep Trophy – a domestic tournament – to get some first-hand experience of the longer version of the game before the Bangladesh series. But for Pant, there are formidable competitors in the form of KS Bharat, Ishan Kishan, and KL Rahul, each of whom has been considered for the wicketkeeper’s position in the Indian Test team when Pant was sidelined.
The selectors will find it very difficult to select the final eleven players to include in the squad for the Bangladesh series. At least two keepers are expected to be included. That’s why Pant’s performance in the Duleep Trophy may become the decisive factor for selection into the Test team.
