IND vs AUS 5th Test: Rishabh Pant likely to be dropped from India XI as Gambhir, Rohit plan strict action

Team India's Probable Playing XI For IND vs AUS 5th Test: India's head coach, Gautam Gambhir, and captain, Rohit Sharma, are considering dropping Rishabh Pant from the playing XI for the Sydney Test in the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) series in Australia, an Indian Express report cited. Pant faced backlash from fans and former cricketers after India fell to an 184-run defeat in front of a record-attendance crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in the Boxing Day Test.

Pant gave away his wicket while trying to pull off an audacious shot in the first innings. Former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, who was on commentary, said, "Stupid, stupid, stupid. You've got two fielders there, and you still go for that, you've missed the previous shot. And look where you've been caught. You've been caught at deep third," was Gavaskar's reaction during commentary.

Despite India’s shaky batting performances in the home Test series against Bangladesh and New Zealand, Pant was picked for the crucial Australia tour with an expectation that he could be a game-changer, thanks to his memorable heroics in the 2020/21 series Down Under. However, the wicketkeeper-batter has struggled this time around, scoring only 154 runs in seven innings at an average of 22. He failed to make even a single fifty.

Pant ended the fourth Test with scores of 28 (37) and 30 (104). Overall, in the series, the 27-year-old has managed to amass 154 runs at an average of 22.00 in seven innings.

Meanwhile, former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar believes Pant should be criticised for his failures, but not the way he gets dismissed.

"Pant should be criticised only for his failures, rather than how he fails. He averages 42 in Tests with at least 3 great innings, ever played by an Indian! In 42 tests he has 6 hundred & 7 nineties. He is a great player not scoring enough runs & that's the crux of it," Manjrekar wrote in a post on X.

Selectors made bold selections for India vs Australia Test series

In the recent past, India made bold selection calls against Australia, starting with Washington Sundar as the lone spinner in Perth, replaced by Ravichandran Ashwin and then Ravindra Jadeja in Brisbane. Harshit Rana debuted in Perth but was benched after struggling in Adelaide. In Melbourne, India fielded three all-rounders—Nitish Reddy, Jadeja, and Sundar—while Shubman Gill was dropped, and Rohit Sharma opened, pushing KL Rahul to No. 3.

Team India's probable playing XI for IND vs AUS 5th Test

India Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Sarfaraz Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prasidh Krishna, Shubman Gill, Devdutt Padikkal, Tanush Kotian, Dhruv Jurel, Harshit Rana

India will take on Australia in the final match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) at the Sydney Cricket Ground from January 3.