India vs South Africa: Rishabh Pant needs to take rejection on his chin and improve his technique to stake permanent claim to wicketkeeper's slot

He is but 11 Test matches old and cannot be blamed if he has felt that it is the dizziest roller coaster he has been on, headier than the adrenalin rush that white-ball cricket is. He has played in four series, scored two centuries in faraway lands, held 51 catches and brought about two stumpings; and has been left out of the XI.

There will be two schools of thought. One which says that having picked Rishabh Pant ahead of the more seasoned Wriddhiman Saha in the two Tests in the West Indies, the team management should penalise him for poor returns with the bat in the three innings there. The other, perhaps more understanding, viewpoint will be that the team needs its best wicketkeeper to do the duty.

Of course, the selectors could have done better by not including Rishabh Pant in the squad in the first place. That they left the difficult decision to the team management perhaps indicates that there is some work to be done before they are in total sync with the Kohli-Shastri combine. But someone had to bite the bullet and it is just as well that Saha has regained his place in the XI.

“(Wriddhiman) Saha’s keeping credentials are there for everyone to see. He’s played well for us whenever he’s got a chance with the bat for us also. It was unfortunate that he was out for such a long period with an injury, and according to me, he’s the best keeper in the world. In these conditions, and with what he’s done for us in the past, he’ll start for us,” Kohli said.

There are two pointers here that Rishabh Pant must accept. First, his wicketkeeping credentials have come into question — and they suffer in comparison with Saha. Second, the reference to “these conditions” by the skipper is a telling indication that the team management is looking for someone who can support the spin bowlers in home conditions.

He has much work to do before he becomes the preferred choice when the think-tank plumps for a horses-for-courses approach in Test cricket. Besides, his own batting in the Tests in the West Indies was neither the most convincing nor enough for the skipper and the coaches to overlook his wicket-keeping skills, which have great room for improvement.

For a batsman who has scored Test centuries in England and Australia and can express himself fearlessly in front of the wicket, he did not cover himself with glory in the West Indies.

To be sure, that he got to the milestone of 50 victims in just 11 Tests — faster than all other Indian wicketkeepers — would seem to suggest otherwise, but Rishabh Pant will be the first to concede that the 17 catches in two Tests in Adelaide and Perth last December contributed to such a milestone.

He would have known since the signs were ominous. Ahead of the Twenty20 series against South Africa, both Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri expressed their anguish at his inability to read game situations. Then again, Shastri said Pant is in great space with the Indian team. “Pant is a special kid and he is only going to learn. This team management will back him to the hilt,” he had said.

It remains to be seen how the team management backs Pant when he is out of the XI. Hopefully, he will not be left to his own devices and that the team management does something different — like say, get a wicketkeeping coach to enable the youngster to sharpen his glovework by focussing on the basics.

It may be unfair, but he will remember that he was heckled by the spectators in Mohali when he missed a simple stumping chance and Australia’s Alan Turner made the most of that fundamental error. It is mistakes like these that he will have to iron out, paying more attention to improving his technique, especially when keeping to spinners in home conditions.

He will turn 22 on the third day of the Visakhapatnam Test and has a lot of time ahead in the Indian set up. If he can focus on improving his wicketkeeping while adding layers to the grammar of his batting without losing its ability to express itself in no uncertain terms, he could well be the team’s first-choice stumper in all formats of the game.

How he responds to the covert message sent him by a team management that has promised to back him to the hilt will make for interesting viewing over time. He can choose to either sulk and mope in a corner or chalk a way forward to improve his abilities with the large gloves. For the sake of Indian cricket, it must be hoped that he will choose the latter, even if he has to invest in a coach.

He does have the gift of timing. All he needs to do is believe that he can put the same gift to better use when behind the stumps, but first by working on his technique. His fans will have to believe that he has the right approach and will choose a path that can make him either an improved wicket-keeper or a reliable, consistent and devastating batsman who can claim a slot in the middle-order.

Rishabh Pant is not the first youngster to be kept out of the Test XI. Nor will he be the last. He will have to take the move by the team management on his chin and get back to the drawing board so that he can resume the journey to becoming the best wicketkeeper-batsman in the country. He does not have to look far beyond Mahendra Singh Dhoni for inspiration to do that.