Ravichandran Ashwin Critiques Rishabh Pant's Decision-Making

Ravichandran Ashwin has never been one to dress up an opinion. On his show ‘Ash Ki Baat’, the former India off-spinner turned the spotlight firmly on Rishabh Pant, praising the wicketkeeper’s talent but demanding a sharper cricketing brain to go with it.

Pant has just come off a respectable Test series against Sri Lanka – 168 runs, two half-centuries, plenty of intent. On paper, it reads like a solid return. Ashwin’s view: the scorecard flatters the story.

“My expectation from Rishabh Pant hasn't been fulfilled till now. I am very sorry,” Ashwin said, making it clear this wasn’t going to be a soft appraisal. He pointed out that while Pant’s strike rate and impact often stand out, the method behind those runs still leaves too much to chance. The issue, as Ashwin sees it, is not the aggression itself, but when and how Pant chooses to unleash it.

Pant’s high-risk options have been under the microscope for months. The debate has followed him from one series to another: is he taking the game away from opponents, or taking it away from his own team? Ashwin reached back to Guwahati last year, when Pant, captaining India in Shubman Gill’s absence, charged down the pitch at Marco Jansen and edged to the keeper. India were already miles behind in the contest. The shot, for Ashwin, was symbolic of a deeper problem.

“Son al Dinusha had his strike rate up there. But the difference is high-risk options. When you have the game in your hand, these are all statements: ‘That’s how Rishabh plays.’ It is about what your team needs,” he said. The message was blunt: style cannot sit above situation.

Pant currently finds himself as a Test-only cricketer for India, squeezed out of the ODI and T20I squads. For Ashwin, that is not some great mystery. He links it directly to decision-making. The talent is unquestioned; the judgment, he insists, is not yet at the level required for an all-format mainstay.

No free pass for ‘once-in-a-generation’

During the discussion, the host floated the familiar defence of Pant – that his rare ability and history of match-turning knocks earn him a longer rope and the freedom to play his natural game. Ashwin cut through that argument.

“Rishabh played a class knock in Sydney and Brisbane, but you couldn't have won that match without Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur,” he reminded. Those famous 2021 efforts in Australia, often framed as Pant’s epic alone, were used instead to underline a larger truth: it always takes 11 to build a Test win.

“It takes 11 cricketers to build a Test and win it in the last session of the game, but it takes only 1 moment of foolishness to lose a Test,” Ashwin said. One rush of blood, one misread moment, and five days of work can vanish.

He stressed he was not asking Pant to abandon his attacking nature. The call was for situational intelligence. “I am just talking about the times when these chances are being taken when the game is on the line. I love Rishabh the player. It is about playing situations in this format.”

To drive home the point, Ashwin invoked two of the most destructive players the game has seen. “Sehwag and Gilchrist played high brand of cricket, but these two don't get edged out while dancing down to Marco Jansen when your team is trailing by 500 runs. Don't place these marketing lines in front of me ever again,” he said, dismissing the romanticism around “that’s just how he plays” as a shield for poor choices.

‘Tell him the truth’

Ashwin then turned to what he believes Indian cricket owes Pant at this stage of his career: honesty, not indulgence. No more sheltering behind slogans, no more special treatment.

“Don't give one player special treatment. This once-in-a-generation player backing, then give it to everyone. Jaiswal is also such a player,” he argued. If the system is going to anoint a chosen one, he suggested, it cannot be at the cost of standards.

Pant has already played 50 Tests. That number matters to Ashwin. It is the cut-off point where a precocious talent must become a dependable pillar. “All I'm saying, Rishabh, is that he is experienced; he has played 50 Tests. He needs to take responsibility. Don't come up with this ‘once-in-a-generation’ argument.”

Ashwin then joined the dots between Pant’s Test habits and his absence from the white-ball sides. “It is because of his decision-making that he's not playing the other two formats. The day you tell him the truth, he will be an all-format player for India,” he said.

That line hung in the air. It was both a criticism and a prediction. For Ashwin, the path back into India’s ODI and T20I plans is not about reinventing Pant the shot-maker, but about refining Pant the thinker.

He still sits at the heart of India’s Test plans, still capable of changing a game in a single session. The question now is not whether Rishabh Pant can thrill. It is whether he is ready to trim the one moment of “foolishness” that keeps holding him back from owning all three formats again.