KL Rahul's injury puts onus on Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya

With full-time skipper Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah already resting while the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja are down with injuries, India didn’t need any more of their first-choice players to be missing in action.

Rishabh Pant began Wednesday morning by visiting Sonnet Club – his cricketing alma mater – to meet coach Devender Sharma and speak to a bunch of academy trainees. With no bio-bubble in operation for the five-match T20I series against South Africa, Pant was free to mill around his old stomping ground for around an hour in the middle of the scorching heat and perhaps recount his younger days. Little did he know that by Wednesday evening, he would be set to make his India captaincy debut on Thursday after a groin injury laid KL Rahul low.

Indian cricket team players Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya warm up during a practice session for the upcoming T20 cricket series against South Africa, at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi (PTI)

“It is a very proud moment for our club. He spoke some motivating words to the kids at the camp. Our summer camp is going on. It was at this very camp that we discovered Pant. He was coming to the club after two years due to bio-bubble restrictions,” Sharma said.

Pant got to know about his elevation after 5pm on Wednesday once it was confirmed that Rahul was ruled out of the series. Left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav has also been sidelined after copping a blow on his right hand during a practice session on Tuesday. Hardik Pandya, fresh from leading Gujarat Titans to the IPL title, will be Pant’s deputy. That Pant’s first game as India captain will be in front of his home crowd in Delhi makes the occasion all the more poignant.

“I think it’s a very good feeling. It didn’t come under very good circumstances but at the same time, I am feeling happy. I’ll try to make the most of it. I would like to keep improving every day. There’s nothing bigger than getting an opportunity like this in your home town,” Pant told reporters on the eve of the first T20I at Feroz Shah Kotla.

While Pant has led Delhi Capitals in the IPL for the past two seasons (second half of 2021 and 2022), the injury to Rahul is certainly a big blow to India’s plans as they build up to the T20 World Cup in Australia in October and November. Aside from this being an opportunity lost for Rahul to enhance his leadership credentials after impressing as Lucknow Super Giants skipper in the IPL, his absence at the top of the order deprives the batting unit of valuable experience.

With full-time skipper Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah already resting while the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja are down with injuries, India didn’t need any more of their first-choice players to be missing in action. Yadav’s unavailability is far from ideal too. He had an excellent IPL season for Delhi Capitals with 21 scalps, but he won’t be able to build on that with a run of games for India. In the last 12 months, he has played three ODIs and T20Is each for the country.

It essentially means that India will be no closer to identifying a broad outline of their squad for the T20 World Cup at the conclusion of these five games.

For Rahul, this series was also a chance to reiterate that he can switch batting gears effortlessly. The Karnataka batter registered 616 runs in IPL 2022 to finish as the second-highest run-getter, but his strike rate was occasionally not up to scratch. Lucknow’s final league against Kolkata Knight Riders was a case in point, when he stayed unbeaten on 68 off 51 balls while Quinton de Kock hit 140 off 70 balls in an unbroken 210-run opening stand. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, coach Rahul Dravid had said in reply to a query on Rahul’s strike rate that he expects his top-3 batters to play positively and set the tone for an innings.

With the 30-year-old unavailable, though, an opportunity opens up for Ishan Kishan and Ruturaj Gaikwad to impress. Kishan was anyways set to open alongside Rahul, but the left-hander can now look to play a leading role and overcome the disappointment of a modest IPL season. Likewise for Gaikwad, who wasn’t able to live up to the high expectations that Chennai Super Kings had after his breakthrough in 2021.

Pant made it clear that they will try different players, even if there is no assurance of all of them getting equal playing time. “As a team, we have discussed about giving opportunities to as many players as possible. That’s the only thing we can do. But with a large squad, it is difficult to give everyone the same amount of playing time. As a team we have thought about certain goals that we want to achieve and are continuously working on them. The World Cup is at the back of our minds. So, we are preparing for that. In the coming days, you will see a lot of changes in the way we play our cricket,” he said.