The Autopsy!
If you listen carefully to Pant’s post match presentation and then connect it with what he said at the toss, an entirely different picture starts emerging. At the toss, he very consciously avoided questions about Shami. Then again in the post match interview, when the presenter asked about Shami and the importance of experienced players in a team, Pant suddenly went on for almost one minute about the value a senior player bring to a team. Right after that, he again repeated the same line he has used earlier too, “there are too many minds working.”
A few things become quite evident from this:
Shami was neither injured nor rested. He was very clearly dropped, and that decision wasn’t Pant’s. It was a management call. Mostly Langer or Moody.
A lot of the criticism Pant is receiving probably isn’t fair. There seem to be bigger decision makers involved behind the scenes and he isn't at all being given a free hand.
The management may already have mentally given up on this season and started experimenting with combinations for the next one instead of atleast trying to finish on 6/7 position and honestly, this kind of defeatist mentality is unacceptable. Before questioning Pant alone, the management should be held accountable first. They are the primary culprits right now.
Also, remember the KL Rahul incident with Goenka? While Rahul was silently listening everything, Langer first had an animated chat with Goenka and later just walks away aggressively as if none of it concerned him. I condemned the way Rahul was treated, but I equally dislike this over authoritative, untouchable approach from Langer. Better to get an Indian head coach who would understand the boys better and help the team flourish.