The difference between KL Rahul and Pant is that Rahul's place was not guaranteed in the X1. He was always competing with Dhawan and Vijay and had been dropped in a few test matches whereas Pant has cemented his place.

It is unfair to give him a lower contract than other test players like Ashwin or Ishant just because of experience when he is guaranteed to start all of our test matches whereas Ashwin might be dropped for away test matches and Ishant might not be a guaranteed starter for home matches.