Rishabh Pant of India plays a shot during the ICC Men's T20 Cricket World Cup West Indies & USA 2024 Final (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
There was a lot of surprise and shock in the cricketing media over Delhi Capitals not retaining Rishabh Pant ahead of the mega IPL auctions in Jeddah in November. Pant is the leading run-getter for the Capitals in the IPL. He is their biggest star. He was also their most prolific scorer last season. Then why did the Capitals let Pant go? Did they make a bigger mistake? Or is there another story hidden behind the big numbers?
RG takes a look.
Overall Numbers in the IPL & the Golden Period
Pant has an aggregate of 3284 runs in 110 IPL innings at an average of 35.3 and strike rate of 148.9 with one hundred and 18 fifties – overall, his numbers are very impressive in the tournament. However, a closer look reveals that Pant was at his peak between 2017 and 2019 where he aggregated a total of 1538 runs in 44 innings at an average of 38.45 and scoring rate of 168.1. He had a balls per boundary ratio of 4.1 in these three years.
Pant had a strike rate of in excess of 160 in each of these seasons with 2018 being his most prolific year where he smashed 684 runs at an average of 52 and strike rate of 173.6 with one hundred and five fifties.
However, Pant witnessed a slump in the IPL from 2020.
The Slump
Pant had a poor season in 2020 where he scored 343 runs at a very low strike rate of 114. He registered just one fifty in the entire tournament. Pant lost his hitting prowess and had a balls per boundary ratio of just 7.5 in the edition. In particular, his ability to clear the ropes declined drastically and Pant hit just nine sixes in the entire season.
Just two high impact performances in 2024
Pant had an aggregate of 446 runs in 13 innings at an average of 40.5 and strike rate of 155.4 in this season’s IPL. At the surface, these are fine returns but the real story only emerges when we do a deep dive into the numbers and performances.
Pant produced only two high impact performances in the season. He smashed 88 off 43 deliveries against the Gujarat Titans which was his best knock in the tournament. He also smashed 55 off 25 from 27 for 3 but this came in a lost cause chasing 273 against the Knight Riders where the top-order collapsed and there was no pressure on Pant as the fate of the match was sealed within the powerplay. So, in a nutshell, Pant has produced just one leading performance with the bat this season.
What is more worrying is that a majority of his performances have been below-par.
Pant’s failures with the bat in IPL 2024
Pant scored 18 off 13 deliveries from 74 for 2 (in 8 overs) against Punjab Kings. He crawled to 26 off 28 deliveries from number 4 in a 186-run chase against the Royals which actually cost DC the match. Pant was dismissed for a solitary one against Mumbai Indians and failed to maintain the tempo despite the great start by Jake Fraser-McGurk in the return leg. Pant let the team down in the 267-run chase against the Sunrisers scoring just 44 off 35 deliveries and could not cash in on the brilliant platform laid by Tristan Stubbs and Abhishek Porel. Pant got a start but could not convert it to a substantial score getting dismissed for 27 off 20 deliveries against Knight Riders and was a non-contributor (15 off 13 deliveries) even as DC piled on 221 against the Royals.
A poor T20I record
Pant has never been a good T20I batter. In fact, he has poor returns for India in the format scoring just 1209 runs in 66 innings at an average of 23.25 and strike rate of 127.26. Amongst all Indian batters who have scored a minimum of 500 runs in international T20 cricket, Pant’s scoring rate places him as low as number 14! Pant has registered just three fifties in the format and has a high Failure Rate of 61.5%!
Despite, his below-par returns for India and not so outstanding numbers in the last few seasons of the IPL, there has been an aura around Pant and his batting. There are two reasons for it. Most experts and analysts make the big blunder of mixing his Test record with his T20 performances – Pant is already amongst the greatest wicket-keeper batters of all-time and has single-handedly altered the course of some marquee encounters around the world in red-ball cricket. He is a big match-winner for India in the format. It seems as if his phenomenal achievements in Test cricket and his destructive, flamboyant and unorthodox style of play makes the cricketing world at large to believe that he is/can be a great T20 batter too.
Unfortunately for Pant, while he has all the attributes of succeeding in the shortest format, for various reasons, he has not done justice to his talent and massively under-achieved in the format.
Will that change in IPL 2025? Will he get more chances for India? Only time will tell.
Nikhil Narain is a die-hard cricket romantic, published author, and has worked for some of the leading digital websites and broadcasters in India and overseas. An alumnus of the London School of Economics, Nikhil's forte is using data and numbers creatively to weave interesting stories and revolutionize the way cricket statistics are generated and analyzed.
