IPL 2025: Pant has to bat up the order, shouldn't play a finisher's role, opines Pujara

New Delhi, April 23 (IANS) Veteran India batter Cheteshwar Pujara believes Rishabh Pant should be coming higher in the batting order, and feels the wicketkeeper-batter shouldn’t be playing the finisher’s role.

On Tuesday, Pant’s poor run of form continued when he was bowled for a two-ball duck by Mukesh Kumar. But what appeared more worrisome was Pant, IPL’s most expensive player with Rs 27 crore paycheck, being demoted to bat at number seven, with Abdul Samad, David Miller and impact player Ayush Badoni sent ahead of him to inject some momentum into LSG innings.

"I genuinely don't know what the thought process was. There's no doubt he should be batting up the order. He's trying to do what MS Dhoni does, but he's nowhere near (Dhoni's age). I still feel he's someone who should be batting in the middle overs, between (overs) six and 15. He's not a finisher, and he shouldn't be doing the job of a finisher," said Pujara on ESPNCricinfo.

Former England opener Nick Knight stated he understood the reasoning behind having Pant bat at number seven, but he disliked how it appeared on-field. "I've not really a problem with Badoni batting at four-five. I see some rationale in that, because I think he's playing well, and I think he's more likely to score runs than Rishabh Pant. There's the problem.

"Samad you could probably say the same, he's more likely to score runs than Rishabh Pant. David Miller, you could say the same. When you look at the decision-making, perhaps in rationale it makes some sense. Where I don't like it at all is it just doesn't look very good.

"There is your captain, sliding, going backwards in the batting order when you really need him to step up. He's the one that's going to be standing up and talking in front of your team, he's the one who's leading you out there. He's your leader, and it just doesn't look great when the leader is going the other way. From that perspective that's my problem, because I would agree - Badoni is probably more likely to score runs, etc etc. It doesn't look right," he elaborated.

In IPL 2025, Pant has made only 106 runs in nine innings at an average of 13.25 and a strike-rate of 96.36. Pujara further stated that it’s difficult to compare Pant, the successful Test batter and his not-so-great T20 batting, though he pointed out that the wicketkeeper-batter appears a bit casual in his assessment of certain players as the LSG skipper in IPL 2025.

"Talking about him in Test cricket, he can have an extra bit of time when he comes in to bat. He knows that bowlers are trying to get his wicket, the field is in and there are a lot of players in the slips. So he has enough gaps when he is batting in the Test format. Even if the field is spread, still there are a lot of gaps when he is playing in the Test format.

"So it's a different format altogether. You can't compare his Test batting with T20 format. Also in T20, when he comes in to bat at number 4 or 5 later on, the ball is a little softer. The opposition has a proper field set for him. So it's very difficult to compare his Test batting with T20 format.

"But talking about his captainship, I think he is someone who is, I would say, a little casual in terms of assessing the players. I have noticed that even in Test format, sometimes he feels that he doesn't need to read a lot about the opposition. He believes on his instincts, and this is the format where you need to do a lot of research.

"You need to know your opposition batters, what are their scoring areas, who are the bowlers, who are the match-ups. That is something I don't know whether he is doing it, because he is someone who is quite reluctant to do that."

Pujara signed off by saying Pant is also not spot on in terms of DRS calls. “I have had so many conversations with him in Test format. So I know that he doesn't have a clue of where the ball is going. Being a wicket-keeper, he should know, and he will end up blaming me that I don't know.”

--IANS

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