Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant was considered to be tailor-made for the white-ball formats when he started his career. His explosive batting soon earned him a spot in the national team. He made his T20I debut in 2017 and a year later played his first fifty-over game.  However, his failures and the emergence of better players led to his removal from shorter formats.

Aakash Chopra believes that Pant’s days as an ODI cricketer may well be over after he was ignored for the series against the West Indies. It was initially thought that the cricketer could be included in the squad since Ishan Kishan is part of the Asian Games squad. Dhruv Jurel was chosen as the second wicketkeeper.

“Rishabh’s case is very strange and unique.

He is playing Test cricket and is an important member of the squad, but had lost his vice-captaincy there as well,” Chopra said.

“He is the captain of the Rest of India squad for the Irani Trophy game against Jammu and Kashmir. This shows that the management is serious about him playing a huge role in the red-ball format. But as far as the white-ball cricket goes, itseems the selectors have made up their mind.”

The 28-year-old had a good tour of Sri Lankascoring 108 runs with two fifties and averaging 56.

He also became the first Indian batter to hit 100 sixes in Test cricket and the fastest to achieve his feat. He will be part of the New Zealand tour in a few weeks.

Rishabh Pant’s ODI career in a glance

Since 2018, Pant has played just 31 ODIs, scoring 871 runs at an average of 33 and a strike rate of 106. He has also scored five half-centuries and a hundred.

Pant’s last fifty-over came against Sri Lanka in 2024. He was also part of the squad that won the Champions Trophy 2025 but didn’t get a game since KL Rahul was preferred over him.