Former England captain Michael Vaughan reckons it won’t be easy for Rishabh Pant to get back into India’s T20I team. Pant was unfortunately dismissed for a run-out after scoring seven runs off nine balls against Delhi Capitals at Lucknow on Wednesday.

The left-hander had a mundane run in IPL 2025 as he could only manage 269 runs in 13 innings at an average of 24.45. Thus, he could lead from the front after he was roped in for a whopping amount of INR 27 crores in the mega-auction.

Pant was part of the 2024 T20 World Cup winning team but after that, could not break into India’s T20I team.

Vaughan said on Cricbuzz, “If he’s going to open, he can be a bit braver. He can be a bit more of a dasher. India have got a galaxy of wicketkeepers with Samson, Kishan, and Jitesh Sharma. So it’s not going to be easy for him to get back in the Indian T20I side. The biggest stage is now for him to have a humdinger of an IPL.”

Vaughan wants Pant to take a leaf out of Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s book and play with freedom.

“If I was him, I would be watching Suryavanshi. Because when Rishabh plays, he reminds me of a free-spirited character that tries to whack the ball out of the ground. And that’s how he should play.”

On the other hand, former Indian fast bowler Zaheer Khan reckons Pant must bat at a stabilised number and not change his batting position too much.

“He has achieved quite a lot in this format as well in the IPL. But overall, in T20s, he needs to stabilize in terms of the number he is batting at. Because he can bat at any number, it makes it confusing,” said Zaheer (via the aforementioned source).

Lucknow Super Giants will next take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad, on Sunday.