Rishabh Pant shouldn’t take wickets in India’s second Test of the current five-match away Test series against England, according to former cricket player Dodda Ganesh. In the forthcoming match, he thought it would be wise for Pant to play as a pure batter.
According to the 51-year-old, India ought to include Dhruv Jurel as a designated wicketkeeper in the starting lineup. Ganesh proposed a suggestion on the microblogging platform X to relieve some of Pant’s load off his shoulders:
“Won’t be a bad idea to hand over the wicket keeping duties to Jurel and play Pant as a pure batter. Thoughts?”
The vice-captain of team India and Rishabh Pant was the best performer in the first Test series opener against England at Headingley, Leeds, with the bat. He is the first Indian wicketkeeper to score two hundred in a test when he got century scores of 134 and 118.
He did not succeed in his heroics though and England won the match by five wickets. The home team achieved the 10 th highest fourth-innings run-chase in the Test cricket history, surpassing their opponents 371 target on the 5 th day.
In the meantime, Dhruv Jurel featured in the match of the India A team, which has two tests not counted in the official Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, against England Lions. In the two matches he appeared to be in good batting form.
Jurel had scored a 94 and 53* in the first game whereas, he scored a 53 and 28 in the second match. The Test debut was in February 2024 and the stumper has 202 runs in six innings with an average of 40.40.
“In Tests, your body gets tired” – Ravichandran Ashwin urges Rishabh Pant to avoid his somersault celebration
Rishabh Pant wowed fans by performing a somersault after scoring a century in the Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) final league match of the 2025 Indian Premier League. At 118 off 61 balls against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), he was still undefeated.
He reignited the celebrations after scoring 100 runs in the first innings of the Test series opener against England. Ravichandran Ashwin, a former spinner for India, advised the wicketkeeper against doing the somersault in the red-ball format.
‘Ash ki Baat’ is his YouTube channel. Ashwin stated (through The Indian Express):
“I’ve only one request (to Rishabh Pant), please don’t do that front flip. In Tests, your body gets tired unlike in IPL where you will not play more than 50-60 balls. He is a bona fide top batter in the Indian lineup. So he has nothing to prove.”
Ravichandran Ashwin
England is now ahead 1-0 in the five-game series. From July 2–6, Edgbaston, Birmingham, will host the second Test.
