What Ishan Kishan can learn from Rishabh Pant’s fate? Carry the sword, but don’t forget the shield

Ishan Kisan & Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant is not too different from the early die-hard fighter jocks taking to the skies to break the sound barrier. Historians say, those pioneer aviators would opt to crash and die rather than slow down or eject out.

Rishabh Pant is a compulsive risk-taker, a perpetual rollercoaster rider and an enigma who toggles between “stupid, stupid, stupid” and “superb, superb, superb“. He is a special batting talent with an uncanny knack for frustrating coaches and selectors.

Recently, during the South Africa Test series that India lost, the wicket-keeper cum stand-in captain, true to his reputation, had coaches pulling their hair out after he played the kind of stroke that clearly indicated brain-fade. There were repercussions. As collateral damage, his Test misgivings resulted in him not making it to the T20 World Cup that starts at home next month. And it’s been said that his place in the ODI team too is in doubt.