Rishabh Pant is the only player who has a chance to join that elite group and possibly climb even higher. Since Dhoni’s retirement, the 24-year-old Delhi native has stepped into that position, taking up the mantle and navigating the situation with a dash of his own style.

Rishabh Pant is a born competitor.

The Indian wicketkeeper, along with players like Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah, is one of his team’s greatest athletes. Gymnast in his younger years, Pant can perform a variety of back flips, front flips, and even the kip-up, which he occasionally performed on the field during a Test match against England as well as on social media.

Wicketkeeping is typically an unpleasant profession, yet it calls for extreme levels of ability, focus, and fitness, particularly in the longest format. Pant is one of India’s top wicketkeepers because he has recently demonstrated a wealth of the previously listed traits.

The excellent synergy between the hands and the eyes.

Hand-eye coordination is one of the key elements of a wicketkeeper’s game. Every pitch or location poses a unique challenge with a varying bounce or abrupt turn. While wicketkeepers must be ready to meet those obstacles, so too must opposing batters.

The player behind the stumps needs to be ready to counter any wicked deflections off the edge, fast spinner spins, or steep bounces off the surface. Wriddhiman Saha, an Indian wicketkeeper, said that a wicketkeeper’s success depends on having good hand-eye synchronization in 2017. Not a lot of keepers would disagree.

He was taught by the greatest.

The Delhi hitter, who made his Indian team debut at the juvenile age of 19, was positioned as MS Dhoni’s backup pretty early in his career. Pant was trained by the greatest in the business as Thala approached the end of his career.

Wriddhiman Saha’s involvement in this was consistent as well, filling in during Test matches and occasionally offering the young player insightful criticism. Although the flamboyant southpaw was causing a stir with his batting, it was his ability behind the wickets that appeared to be impeding his development.

The teenager is now without a doubt India’s first-choice keeper in all formats, a few years later. He is now finally coming into his own after studying under the finest. He still has the majority of his career to go, so who knows—he might become India’s best wicketkeeper as well.