Rishabh Pant’s cricket career suffered a setback in late 2022 when he suffered horrific injuries after his car crashed with a divider while he was driving home to celebrate New Year’s Day with family. The wicketkeeper-batter had to spend over a year on the sidelines that saw him miss a series of major competitions including IPL 2023, ODI World Cup among others. However, he made a successful return to competitive cricket last year during IPL and was also part of India’s title-winning campaign at the 2024 T20 World Cup in the Americas. While Pant‘s cricket career is back on track, batting legend Virender Sehwag reckons that the accident and subsequent dip in form meant the 27-year-old may have lost out to Shubman Gill in the race for the India Test captaincy. The Indian selection committee, headed by Ajit Agarkar, recently named Gill as the Test captain while Pant has been handed over the vice-captaincy duties. Sehwag said Pant’s impact in Test cricket is similar to that of batting superstar Virat Kohli in terms of drawing viewers to the format. “What Rishabh Pant has done in Test cricket no other player has. After Virat Kohli, if there is one player who made fans watch Test cricket, it’s Rishabh Pant,” Sehwag said on Cricbuzz. “The way he has played Test cricket, the kind of performances he has in Australia, he isn’t talked about as much, but he has been the top performer when India won series in Australia. But because he had that accident, got injured and then returned, he couldn’t make much of an impact, and maybe that’s why he was made the vice-captain with hopes if he can bounce back to form and starts making runs, if a change is needed, they can appoint Pant as the captain in future.” Sehwag thinks that the selectors went with a long-term option in Gill since Jasprit Bumrah is expected to sit out from a few Tests to manage his workload. “See, for a series, naming Jasprit Bumrah (captain) is fine. But if you look at the long-term option, will Bumrah be part of all Tests in a year? If there are 10 Tests, will he play all? If not 10, then five? If not five, then how many? So based on that, a captain was picked,” Sehwag said. “In my opinion, this is the right decision that since you cannot name Bumrah who has to carry so much bowling load in Test cricket, then (pick) second-best option. In my view, Rishabh Pant is the second-best option, and Shubman Gill is third best,” he added. Sehwag said bowlers leading Test team is a rarity. “Very few bowlers are made the captain. In my career, I just saw one bowler who became captain – Anil Kumble whose place are assured in Tests, and he liked the format and was available too,” he said.