3 min readUpdated: Jun 5, 2026 02:15 PM IST
India head coach Gautam Gambhir said on Friday that Rishabh Pant hasn’t been asked to abandon the aggressive manner in which he bats in Test cricket before stating that it is “important to play according to the situation”. Gambhir’s comments come on the eve of India’s one-off Test against Afghanistan, and among the headlines to emerge out of the squad announcement for the match was Pant losing vice-captaincy.
“Responsibility is only to play for India. Everything else – captaincy, vice-captaincy and so on – are by-products,” Gambhir told reporters in New Chandigarh on Friday. “When you play for India, you don’t think of these things from the first day. You think about doing well for India. So going from one post to the other are all just by-products. Ultimately, everyone is judged on performance. Whether it be me or anyone in the support staff or any player. Ultimately, that is what international cricket is all about.”
Gambhir said that Pant won’t be told to change the way he plays. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)
“As far as Rishabh is concerned, we will expect him to be the way he is. It’s not like we will tell him you have to change your game. But, it is important to play according to the situation in international cricket. It is important to create situations. Thinking what the team needs in a certain situation and playing your shots accordingly. But no player has been told to abandon their natural game and play differently. Whether it be Tests or ODIs or T20Is. Ultimately it is about making runs and taking wickets. Make runs whichever way you want, but it is very important to read the situation of the game,” he said.
The series comes after a nightmarish time in the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) for Pant, at the end of which he resigned as captain of the Lucknow Super Giants, with the team finishing last in the table. Before that, Pant had a couple of indifferent outings in India’s stunning 2-0 loss in a Test series at home to South Africa. That series, however, was Pant’s first after recovering from an injury that he sustained in India’s five-Test series in England, in which he was among the standout performers. Pant had scored centuries in both innings of the opening Test and then scored half-centuries in three of his next five innings.
