Widely considered as one of the explosive batters in the world, Rishabh Pant's T20I numbers are in stark contrast to his figures in Test cricket. While he averages well over 40 in the longest format, in the shortest version of the sport his average barely crosses the 23 mark. In the recently concluded T20I series against South Africa, several former cricketers slammed Rishabh Pant for getting out in the same fashion on numerous occasions and even questioned his place in the side. Rishabh Pant, on the other hand, didn't do anything to shut up his critics as he could only manage 58 runs in the 5 outings against the South Africans. Though head coach Rahul Dravid backed Rishabh Pant to come good for India in the upcoming T20Is against England and the West Indies, the Uttarakhand-born batter continues to cope with criticism for his lacklustre display against the Proteas. The latest to join the group of Rishabh Pant's critics is former India pacer Ashish Nehra.

Rishabh Pant's horror show against South Africa had prompted the likes of Sunil Gavaskar and Aakash Chopra to raise their voice against his inclusion in the national squad for the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year. Ashish Nehra has now suggested that Rishabh Pant could miss the flight to Australia because his T20I form is not as good as the other wicketkeepers in the team.

“Right from day one we knew he(Pant) is going to be popular. He came the first day and then got dropped as he flopped initially. Then he came back and made a name for himself. I am very sure he will be disappointed with the kind of T20 numbers he had.”

“The question this person asked was ‘can Team India play T20 cricket without Pant? Yes, Why Not. T20 World Cup is very far away. There is no stamp that says Pant will surely play the T20 World Cup. He can also get injured. But there are lot of games in between. We will have ten T20Is and then the Asia Cup,” Ashish Nehra said on Cricbuzz.

The former India speedster also gave three names who could replace Rishabh Pant in the Rahul Dravid-coached side.

“One good thing about Pant is that he plays all three formats. Others play only T20I, and if they don’t perform well in these limited chances, they will have some problems. You have Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson. You also have Dinesh Karthik,” Nehra further said.

Meanwhile, ex-India coach Sanjay Bangar had an altogether different take on the matter. According to him, like the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, Rishabh Pant may be taking a longer time than expected to find his touch in T20Is but there's no doubt about his batting capabilities.

Bangar even went on to say that Rishabh Pant should be tried as an opener in the T20Is because it would allow him to play his attacking shots in the powerplay overs.

“I've been thinking about it for 3 years. If you look at Sachin Tendulkar's career, he hit his first century in his 75th or 76th innings when he was asked to open the innings against New Zealand after batting largely in the middle-order. Right now, the Indian team is looking at a left-right combination. Yes, Ishan Kishan is doing good right now, but if the Indian team is eyeing a left-right opening pair for the long term, Rishabh Pant can do the same job that someone like Adam Gilchrist did for Australia,” Bangar told Star Sports.

Former India pacer Irfan Pathan agreed with Sanjay Bangar's view and urged the national team management to try him as an opener.

“We're talking about off-side (problem) for a long time now. But when does it happen? When the field opens up. Can we use Rishabh Pant in the powerplay where the bowlers can't give enough width? Yes, there will be challenge because the ball will swing early on, but then, Rishabh Pant is a quality batter. He has scored nearly 3,500 international runs in his short career. So, I'm thinking along those lines. It may not be right now, but maybe in the future,” Pathan said.

Despite his dismal show against South Africa, Rishabh Pant has got the backing of coach Rahul Dravid, who has denied that his place in the side was under any kind of threat.

“In the process (of playing an attacking game), he might go wrong in a few games but he remains an integral part of our batting line-up with the power he has, and the fact that he is a left-hander is important to us in the middle overs, he played some good knocks,” Rahul Dravid said in the post-match press conference.

“Personally, he would have liked to score a few more runs but it is not concerning him. Certainly, he is a very big part of our plans going ahead in next few months,” the former batting stalwart who has more than 13,000 Test runs to his name added.