The last thing Rishabh Pant needs right now is to feel unwanted.

Rishabh Pant is stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, he is getting pummelled for his performances as both batter and captain of the eliminated Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), and on the other, his place in the Indian team appears to be slipping away. The management has already moved on from him in the ODI and T20I scheme of things, and after the rap on the knuckles he received from the chairman of selectors – the BCCI removing him as India’s vice-captain – a demotion in Test cricket hasn’t come at the right time either.

It is understandable why Pant suffered not one, but two brainfade moments – including a shocking F-bomb – with Ian Bishop last evening. Barely an hour before the toss, Pant got to know he was no longer Shubman Gill’s deputy, having been replaced by someone far more senior. Pant appears mentally worn down. 11 woeful matches in the IPL, the pressure of being the most expensive player in the tournament, struggles with the bat, and operating under the constant gaze of an owner whose history isn’t encouraging seem to have taken a heavy toll. The Afghanistan series could have offered Pant a welcome break from the IPL, allowing him to return to the format he loves most and is best suited for, but the squad announced turned sour.

For starters, Pant has been India’s best Test batter over the last four years, averaging higher than all his contemporaries. Put aside his legendary outing in the 2021 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Pant has been on an unprecedented run despite missing an entire year following a career-threatening road accident. Since 2022, Pant has scored 1885 runs in just 23 Tests at an average of 80.34, including five hundreds and 11 fifties. In terms of aggregate runs, he ranks fourth behind Yashasvi Jaiswal (2511), Shubman Gill (2285) and Ravindra Jadeja (1900). Then again, all three have played significantly more matches than Pant – 28, 30 and 32 respectively.

Secondly, purely in terms of impact, the BCCI has little to no replacement for him. The kind of role Pant performs in the lower middle order may not appear as challenging as Jaiswal facing the new ball in Australia or England, but batting at No. 6 comes with its own set of complications. When the entire team was struggling, Pant produced scores of 99, 60 and 64 even as New Zealand’s spinners ran India ragged in a 3-0 whitewash. Besides, with seven dismissals in the 90s, Pant only reinforces Gautam Gambhir’s ideology of prioritising team results over individual milestones.