Rishabh who could only make 58 runs in his five outings against South Africa at home, found top form on Friday as he smashed 76 off 87 balls on Day 2 of the warm-up match against Leicestershire. Instead of Team India, Rishabh Pant walked out to bat for Leicestershire and got going almost immediately as he tore apart the Indian attack led by Mohammed Shami and comprising the likes of Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, and Shardul Thakur to cruise through to a quick half-century. While fans were happy to see Rishabh Pant back in his attacking avatar, it was his scoop flick off right-arm fast bowler Umesh Yadav which made their day. Rishabh Pant is known for both his unorthodox strokes and his audacity and once again, he showed why he's a difficult batter to bowl in any format of cricket. Rishabh Pant had moved along nicely to 45 when Umesh Yadav came up with a slightly overpitched delivery on the leg stump. Rishabh Pant went down on one knee and swept it for a massive six over the long leg boundary to complete a well-deserved half-century. The video of the 24-year-old's six went viral on social media. The scoop flick wasn't the only Rishabh Pant shot that became a hot topic on Twitter. The southpaw also produced a couple of gorgeous cover drives of Mohammed Shami at the start of the innings.

After bringing up his fifty, Rishabh Pant went berserk and began scoring at a brisk pace. He scored his next 25 runs off only 9 deliveries, hitting both Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj for numerous fours during the said period. The Uttarakhand-born batter finally perished for 76 after he attempted a slog-sweep off Ravindra Jadeja but could only find the top edge of his bat.

Before his knock of 76 in the ongoing tour match, Rishabh Pant was being slammed from all quarters, receiving criticism for his lackluster showing in the five-match home T20I series against South Africa.

Former cricketers, including Sunil Gavaskar, were miffed with him for falling in the off-side trap and making the same mistakes again and again.

On the other hand, Former India all-rounder Madan Lal had launched a full-blown attack on him, declaring that if he was the chairman of selectors at the moment, he wouldn’t have allowed Rishabh Pant to become Team India’s skipper.

“I would have stopped him from becoming captain. Wouldn’t have allowed it. Because such a player needs to be given this responsibility later. Becoming an India captain is a big deal. He is a youngster. He isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The longer he plays, he will gain more maturity,” Madan Lal said on Sports Tak.

Madan Lal even pulled instances from MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli’s stints as India captain, stressing that Rishabh Pant should first mature as a batter before taking the leadership mantle of the Indian cricket team.

“Over the next two years, if he can take his game to the next level, then he can be a good captain, can deal with things maturely. This is a player of a different nature. MS Dhoni was a quiet and cool captain, which suited him as captain. Virat Kohli is a brilliant batter. I’m not saying Pant shouldn’t be swinging his bat but if he can play with a little more maturity, it would be great,” Madan Lal added.

Madan Lal, however, isn't the first Indian cricketer who has criticized the young southpaw in recent days. The likes of Ashish Nehra, Irfan Pathan, and Aakash Chopra have all been critical of Rishabh Pant of late.

“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,” Ashish Nehra said on Cricbuzz.

“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,” the former India pacer added.

“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.