“It seems like a fly has been taken out of milk and thrown away” - Aakash Chopra on Rishabh Pant’s T20I axing

Former Indian cricketer and commentator Aakash Chopra has opened up on the keeper-batter Rishabh Pant not being in the mix of things in the Indian T20I squad with the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 line-up in India and Sri Lanka.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Chopra asserted that Pant had excellent numbers at No.4 to No.7 in the shortest format of the game, striking the ball very well at a decent average. However, he felt bad as the cricketing fraternity isn’t having a lot of talk about Pant’s axing from the shortest format of the game.

“When Rishabh Pant bats at Nos. 1 to 3, he has scored his runs at a strike rate of 156 and has an average of 34, which is good. However, we will not talk about the top three. When you look at Nos. 4 to 7, he has a strike rate of 140 and an average of 30. It’s still okay,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

Moreover, Chopra stated that Pant ended the T20 World Cup 2024 campaign as the third-leading run-scorer for India. However, he reckoned that Pant was removed from the team like a fly has been taken out of milk and thrown away.

“The one thing that goes in his favor, and I am very surprised that no one talks about it, is that he was India’s third-highest run-scorer in the T20 World Cup we won. It seems like a fly has been taken out of milk and thrown away. No one is talking about him. Of course, the IPL not being that good might be one of the reasons, but not even coming into the conversation is a strange one,” Chopra added.

Pant last played a T20I for India in July 2024 against Sri Lanka in Pallekele. In 76 T20Is, Pant could score 1209 runs at an average of 23.25 and a strike rate of 127.26 with three half-centuries.

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