India vs England: Bad result, worse method — no end to Rishabh Pant's woes

London: It is the evening session at The Oval and the September sun is just threatening to peek through the clouds of an otherwise grey south London sky – in the middle an Indian batsman is launching a spirited counter-attack , sprinkling the stands with sixes, swatting some precious runs for his side as he bats with the tail. Before the start of the series, if you had presented any cricket fan with this scenario and asked them to guess the identity of this swashbuckler, it is fair to say a good deal would have plumped for Rishabh Pant. Of course, classic Pant back at it again at The Oval, the ground where he scored his sparkling maiden Test ton just five innings into his career. However they would of course have guessed wrong; the mystery man was Shardul Thakur, his 36-ball 57 almost the only thing so far keeping India’s hopes alive in this Test - the story for Pant meanwhile could scarcely have been any more different. This has not been a series to write home about for India’s wicketkeeper. After four Tests he has managed just 96 runs at an average of 16 – only four teammates have a worse average and they are all at the very rabbity end of the tailender scale. But this is not just about results, after all, Pant would not be the first good batsman to struggle against the potent combination of English fast bowlers and the Dukes ball – Virat Kohli himself could famously only manage an average of 13.50 in the 2014 series. No, the disappointment as far as Pant is concerned has come in the method, a masterclass in brainlessness, summed up by his performance in the first innings here. [caption id=“attachment_9933981” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Rishabh Pant’s woeful form continued in the fourth Test. Image: AP[/caption] When he came to the crease, India were reeling at 105/5, the situation looking all the graver for the fact that Kohli was the last man dismissed, hopes that he had played his way out of his rut dashed when he edged one through to the keeper. This then was a situation for cool heads, India in danger of a first day skittling for the second time in two Tests. Pant managed to keep his for just five balls, attempting to heave the sixth he faced back over his head and the quarter of a mile down the road to Vauxhall Station – he was not successful, producing the sort of wild hack you might have expected from a village cricketer more closely resembling India’s erstwhile unofficial series 12th man ‘Jarvo’ rather than one of the most exciting players in the world game. It was to prove a premonition of things to come, the result no better when Pant did make contact with the ball, his 33rd and last of the innings tamely hoisted high in the air as he skipped down the pitch and tried to deposit Chris Woakes out of the ground, the only result an easy catch for Moeen Ali. For the third time in three innings, Pant had fallen going hard at the ball, but this was the dismissal that will be the most worrying to India, a mindless slog that abdicated all responsibility to the situation. Having fallen twice to shots at the more circumspect end of the scale earlier in the series, Pant clearly moved towards a more gung-ho approach at Headingley – with even less success. The needless swipe appearing less a brave attempt to counter punch and more a tacit admission that he was feeling out of his depth and lacking the sufficient patience to buckle down and try to muscle through. It was a dismissal that will have had England licking their lips, the potentially fearsome Hurricane Pant currently reduced to little more than a bluster of hot air, both he and India in desperate need of a change in the winds if they are to get their once secure series back on track.