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Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar feels that once Rishabh Pant regains full fitness and returns to the Test side, two middle-order batters will be fighting for a spot in the playing XI. KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer will be the contenders for the spot once Pant returns to the fold.
"I think he's a guy who cares about every format. You know how he's built to value every opportunity that he gets after he got that 100. You know, I am looking two years from now and I thought he's really competing with Shreyas Iyer for a batting position in the middle order because the moment Rishabh Pant is fit, he becomes your keeper batter, and there's great quality to Rishabh Pant batting and keeping as well," Manjrekar said on Star Sports after India’s record-breaking seven-wicket win over South Africa at Newlands, Cape Town.
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Batting at no.6 as wicketkeeper-batter, Rahul repaid selectors' faith by smashing a counter-attacking century in Centurion that ended up in a losing cause. The Karnataka-born batter’s century was dubbed by legendary Sunil Gavaskar as one of the best knocks by an Indian in Test cricket in the last five decades.
"That innings was just incredible (First Test hundred). Unfortunately, you know, Dean Elgar got a 180, they got 400 because we at the time thought that 260 was gonna be enough. And that was the moment if India could have latched onto, there would have been a series win in South Africa," Manjrekar further added.
However, Rahul failed to make a mark in the following three innings. On the other hand, Iyer struggled to score throughout the series. He scored 31 in the first innings of Centurion Test followed by a single-digit score contributing to a collapse. In the second innings, he was dismissed for a two-ball duck by Nandre Burger. In the run chase, he walked out to bat when four runs were needed and finished the game with a boundary.
Pant who survived a horrific car accident is expected to recover before Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. He missed the Border-Gavaskar Test series and the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final where Srikar Bharat took over the wicketkeeping duties but failed to perform with the bat.
Pant’s return is likely to boost India’s middle order. He is capable of launching a counter-attack and has an unmatched Test record in overseas conditions as a wicketkeeper-batter.
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