India, Aug. 12 -- Rishabh Pant has built much of his Test career by refusing to play the game conventionally. If there is a ball to hit, he hits it. If there is a field to unsettle, he tries to unsettle it. If convention says a wicketkeeper should first keep wickets and then bat, Pant's emergence flirted with it from the onset. It's an approach that has made him one of India's most valuable Test cricketers, as well as one of their most exasperating.

Last November, at the Barsapara Stadium, Gautam Gambhir offered the clearest indication yet that India's patience with that contradiction may have limits. During an unusually fiery 15-minute press conference, the head coach spoke of players needing to understand the difference between playing...