Overview
- Suresh Raina spoke on Aakash Chopra's YouTube channel Saturday and said Abhishek Sharma should play Test cricket while describing Rishabh Pant as an X‑factor for white-ball cricket.
- Abhishek has not played first-class cricket since February 2024 and has 1,071 runs from 24 matches at a 30.60 average, with one century and five fifties, plus a match-winning fifty in the 2026 T20 World Cup final.
- Rishabh Pant has established himself in Tests with 3,725 runs in 52 matches and has been out of India’s limited-overs squads since July–August 2024 while continuing to play in the IPL.
- Raina publicly questioned whether IPL owners, state associations and coaches are doing enough to encourage red-ball development and said those institutions should help guide young white-ball stars toward first-class cricket.
- No formal selection move or board action has been announced yet, but media coverage says Raina’s intervention has prompted calls for selectors to monitor any domestic red-ball return by Abhishek and to consider pathways to Test selection.