Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant is on the heels of probably the the biggest honour a player can have in international cricket, leading their country in Test cricket, after being named the stand-in captain in Shubman Gill's absence for the second and final game of the two-match series against South Africa in Guwahati. Pant will be under pressure, given that India lost the first Test of the series in Kolkata, there have been a lot of talks since then about India's leadership with what has been said by the coaches in the pressers since the game and the hosts don't have one of the fulcrum of their batting and obviously the captain, Shubman Gill.
However, former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting was confident that Pant won't be bogged down by challenge of Test captaincy, since he has led India in the past, albeit in a different format and has been doing captaincy regularly in the IPL for the past four to five seasons. "It's never easy to come in and fill in for someone as a stopgap captain, especially when you've just lost a Test match a few days before,” Ponting said on the ICC Review.
“Rishabh is a reasonably experienced Test match player now though as well. I think being a wicket keeper probably helps to see the way that the game is evolving and what's happening in the game," Ponting added. Ponting has worked with Pant as coach-captain for the Delhi Capitals in the past for three seasons in 2021, 2022 and 2024 and has seen the wicketkeeper-batter grow as a player and as a leader and said that the occasion wouldn't get to him given that the IPL has prepared the Indian players for crowds, attention and scrutiny in a big way.
“He has done at IPL level now for the last few years, obviously done it in Delhi (Capitals) before that. I think he'll handle it fine. It will be interesting to see how he plays as captain if he changes his style of play as captain, as a batter anyway,” Ponting further said.
“I think he'll handle the occasion fine. I think the one thing that's probably not spoken about enough with these so-called younger Indian players now is that when they take the step up to playing for India in a Test match or even leading their team, because they get that great experience from the IPL.
“The IPL is probably almost as big as a Test match for a lot of these guys because of the crowds and the scrutiny that comes in an IPL game.
“I think the modern players are a bit more ready for that and a bit for those leadership roles and the enormity of the situation than they might have been 15 years ago. So I think Rishabh will handle it fine," Ponting said, expressing his optimism as India found themselves in a must-win situation.
India have lost four out of their last six Tests at home and the scrutiny will rise on the team management, led by the head coach Gautam Gambhir, since the two-time WTC finalists lost nine out of 18 Tests in the new regime. South Africa will be keen to whitewash India in Guwahati, while the hosts aim for a fitting reposte.