As the ball disappeared over cow corner and nestled deep in the stands, Rishabh Pant turned towards the dressing-room, arms aloft, savouring the moment.
Then, carefully, deliberately, he took off his helmet and gloves, respectfully laying them on the turf alongside his bat. Taking a deep breath and composing himself, not unlike a gymnast preparing for the final flourish to end an impeccable floor exercise routine, he pulled off the perfect somersault before sinking into his delighted captain Shubman Gill’s arms.
In the comm box, the great Sunil Gavaskar couldn’t contain himself. Less than six months after his famous ‘Stupid, stupid, stupid’ takedown of Pant’s ambitious scoop at the MCG off Scott Boland that flew off the leading edge to Nathan Lyon, one ball after a similar stroke had struck him in the midriff, the former India captain cooed: ‘Superb, superb, superb.’ That’s the impact Rishabh Pant can have – he can exasperate minutes after exhilarating, he can trigger agony with the same regularity as he can ecstasy.
On Saturday at Headingley, day two of the first Test against England, Pant brought up his seventh Test century, the most by an Indian wicketkeeper as he left Mahendra Singh Dhoni behind. It was his third hundred in as many tours of England – even dozens of specialist batters don’t boast that record – but it was also the slowest of his Test tons, in 146 deliveries. You wouldn’t have guessed, much less suspected, that would be the case when he charged a flummoxed Ben Stokes two balls after the England captain had dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal on Friday evening and smashed him back over his head with utter disdain. Stokes is a maverick himself, but so captivated was he by the little fella hammering the living daylights out of him that he just couldn’t stop grinning.
“He will give the dressing room plenty of grey hairs,” Ravi Shastri said, a certain awe in his voice unmistakable. “Kya player hai.”
Pant finds balance between madness and mastery at Headingley
When he was the head coach, Shastri didn’t discourage Pant from expressing himself. He asked him to be selective, yes, but he also offered him the kind of suggestions he knew would resonate with the chunky left-hander. In the second Ahmedabad Test of 2021, when England tried to frustrate him with a packed on-side field, Shastri exhorted Pant to play the reverse so that he could make the most of the huge gaps on the off-side. ‘Ab yeh huyi na baat’, Pant trilled, as he breezed to 101 off a mere 118 deliveries on a treacherous surface where Axar Patel took nine wickets to formalise India’s entry into the final of the inaugural World Test Championship.
This latest gem from Pant was another indicator of how rapidly the 27-year-old is maturing without going against his natural grain. When he felt that was the need of the hour, he offered a dead defensive blade – his tightness and orthodoxy in defence is often lost in the magic of his unconventional, impish stroke-making – but when he committed himself to cutting loose, he did so without any indication of hesitancy. Sixty-four percent of his 100 (10×4, 4×6) came off boundaries even though he got to three-figures slower than both Yashasvi Jaiswal (144 balls) and Gill (140). He then took just 32 balls for his next 34 runs before, ironically, being dismissed not offering a stroke for the first time in 71 Test innings. Pretty much sums up the Pant persona, doesn’t it?
For the left-hander coming off an ordinary season with Lucknow Super Giants that he only marginally salvaged with a hundred in the final game of a disappointing campaign, this fourth ton against England will be especially satisfying because it came in his first outing as the Test vice-captain. Apart from KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja, no one else in the top seven has played more five-day matches for the country. Pant has occupied the No. 5 position for a fair while now, the surest indication that successive team managements have stopped viewing him as a unidimensional ball-basher and have encouraged him to think and play like the wonderful batter that he is without being shackled by the need to rein in his instincts entirely. It wasn’t mere coincidence that his dismissal on Saturday came after a presumed message to play out time with lunch five minutes away. Why would you tell him that? After all, didn’t he charge Chris Woakes, operating with the new ball, in Friday’s last over and deposit him over square-leg for six?
Let him be, guys. Let him do Rishabh Pant things. He will infuriate from time to time, but the trade-off is worth it when he can give you 43.30 per Test innings on average. At 73.69 runs per 100 balls faced. Just let him be.