"Seems Rishabh Pant is giving auditions for Champions Trophy" - X reacts to the wicketkeeper's sluggish start in 1st IND vs SL T20I 

Team India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant was far from his best in the series opener against Sri Lanka. The left-handed batter struggled for the majority of his innings at the Pallekele International Stadium on Saturday, July 27.

Pant came out to bat at No.4 after Yashasvi Jaiswal in the first ball after the powerplay. He largely played second fiddle and took his time to settle down, as Suryakumar Yadav played with his usual tempo at the other end.

The wicketkeeper-batter scored just 11 runs off his first 12 deliveries before scoring his first boundary. However, that did not lead to big things as Pant was still hovering around the 100 strike rate even after facing over 20 deliveries.

Social media was left fuming over Pant's approach on a good batting surface, especially when the other batters were going all out at the other end.

Here are some of the reactions on X:

"Seems Rishabh Pant is giving auditions for Champion Trophy," one user wrote.

"He plays too safe now," one tweet read.

"This was an ugly innings from Rishabh Pant," another user remarked.

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Rishabh Pant ended up scoring 49 runs off 33 deliveries

Rishabh Pant did switch gears in the death overs, scoring a glorious helicopter shot and scored consecutive boundaries off Matheesha Pathirana before his dismissal. He was outdone by a slower delivery, which he completely missed while attempting another glorious slog.

His knock of 49 runs off 33 deliveries included six fours and one six at a strike rate of 148.48. Team India, on the other hand, finished their first innings with 213 on the board.

Rishabh Pant has had an extended run higher up the order since his stellar 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign. He batted at No.3 in Team India's successful T20 World Cup campaign when Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma opened the innings.

He looks set for a role in the middle order in the new era, but faces a lot of competition from the likes of Shivam Dube and Sanju Samson.