The last time Rishabh Pant featured in an ODI game for India was in August 2024. That remained his only appearance in the format since December 2022, when he had suffered a horrific car accident. That series in Sri Lanka, two years back, was Pant’s way back into the international fold after a year-long recovery. It also remained his last in ODIs under the current regime of head coach Gautam Gambhir.
On Wednesday, when the selectors sat down to pick the white-ball squads for the impending home series against the West Indies, Pant hoped for a return to the format with most of the regulars in the ODIs absent owing to Asian Games duty, which included wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan. Even as KL Rahul would be the preferred first-choice keeping option, as he has been in the ODIs for the last few years, expectations were strong that Pant would find a way back as a back-up option.
But he was overlooked. Dhruv Jurel was picked in his stead, while Pant has been sent on red-ball duty for the Irani Cup, where he will captain Rest of India.
The decision looked hard to explain, not just because Pant directly warranted the space vacated by Ishan, but also because a middle-order spot was up for grabs in the absence of Shreyas Iyer, while Axar Patel’s absence also meant India needed a left-handed batter in the line-up.
However, the reason for his non-selection was due to his limited impact in white-ball cricket. According to a report in the PTI, Pant was not picked as the selectors were swayed by the “feedback from the important members of the team management”, who felt that the batter “hasn’t done justice to his phenomenal talent when it comes to white ball cricket.”
In one-day cricket, the sample size is certainly small. Following the one-off appearance in 2024, Pant made a return to the Vijay Hazare Trophy after a seven-year absence as the Delhi captain in the 2025/26 season, scoring 212 runs in six innings at a strike rate of 112.76 with two fifties. He could not appear in the List A tournament the year before owing to his Test commitments for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia.
Jurel, on the other hand, was the fifth-highest run-getter in the last Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament, scoring 558 runs in seven innings at an average of 93, with two centuries and four fifties.
While the chance to make the cut for the 2027 ODI World Cup is certainly gone, at 28, the door has not shut on Pant’s ODI career entirely. The 2031 edition still looks like a possibility for the left-hander.
