Before the 2017 Champions Trophy in England, Pant was kept on stand-by and once again according to MSK Prasad, Pant was "almost there".
The cut-off date for announcing the squad is April 23 and the selectors have been waiting to watch the performance of some of the players in the ongoing IPL 2019.
There have been discussions that India's World Cup hopefuls' workload management should be monitored during the IPL, starting March 23, so that they remain fresh during the May 30-July 14 extravaganza.
Rahane has been quite impressive and consistent in List A cricket having scored 597 runs in 11 innings at an average of 74.62.
The Men in Blue are currently one of the most balanced sides with a strong bench which includes the back-up option of almost all the players excluding fast-bowling allrounder Hardik Pandya.
Chief selector MSK Prasad revealed that Rishabh Pant is missing the Australia just because of excess workload but he is very much in India's plans for the World Cup.
Prasad wanted to set the record straight on the eve of the Boxing Day Test, which will feature the Saurashtra all-rounder.
The Indian Express newspaper has reported that the former captain was in fact dropped and not rested as the chief of selectors MSK Prasad claimed after announcing the teams.
A senior BCCI official has said that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were consulted before the selectors removed MS Dhoni from India's T20 squad.
MS Dhoni, despite being a sharp planner and a safe and agile hand behind the stumps, has been struggling to finish matches with the bat.
Cricket lovers everywhere have expressed shock and awe over the snub to unarguably one of India's greatest limited-overs batsmen.
Unhappy with his omission, Kedar Jadhav did not mince words and said there was no communication over his exclusion from the Indian team.
Jadhav had made a comeback during the Asia Cup last month but the recurrence of the hamstring injury in the final led to another round of rehab.
It has been learnt that from now on, every selection meeting will be followed by a press conference to ensure that the media doesn't draw conjectures about the selection policy.
Kirmani's comments come in the wake of the controversy over the exclusion of Karun Nair and Murali Vijay from the Test squad.
It is learnt that both Vijay and Nair have "breached the clause" for the centrally contracted cricketers and it has neither gone down well with the selection committee nor the BCCI brass.
With veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh also criticising the "parameters of selection", the under-fire Prasad has been on a clarification spree of late.
Dropped without getting a game in England, Karun Nair's exclusion from the home Tests against West Indies has baffled quite a few but chairman of selectors MSK Prasad said the player himself has been explained the reasons.
It is widely believed that the Indian team management were not happy with Karun's inclusion in the Test set-up.
Rishabh Pant became the first Indian wicket-keeper to score a hundred in England during the Oval Test but was shoddy behind the stumps in the three Tests he played.
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