Rishabh Pant was very angry at not being played in the Champions Trophy

Rishabh Pant had been picked in the Indian team selected for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 but was not provided any place in the eleven. This had left Pant very dispirited. It had been settled between Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma that Pant was going to be on the bench. KL Rahul had been picked as a keep-batting choice in the frontline. It has now come from former India strength and conditioning coach Soham Desai that aggrieved Pant used to punish himself day and night so he would never have to face any such problem again.

Soham Desai revealed in a conversation with TOI that Rishabh Pant did the most rigorous practice sessions day and night as a punishment for himself while sitting on the bench. Whenever he was free, he would take me to the gym. He didn't care about fatigue or workload programs. He just said that he needs to keep working on himself.

Desai further told that on the day of the Champions Trophy final, he came to me with some kind of guilt in his mind and asked if he could take a day off? I said this is the right time for him to do so.

Rishabh Pant did not have a good start to the year or the month before that. Pant's performance in the Test series against Australia was the least impressive. After this, Pant had to sit on the bench in the Champions Trophy. At the same time, despite being the highest-paid player in IPL 2025, the performance was poor. Eventually, Pant has made a brilliant comeback with a century in both innings in the first Test of England vs India at Leeds.