 "Rishabh Pant returns like he never left with record-equalling century on Day 3 of first India-Bangladesh Test")
Ian Botham was a larger-than-life persona, a commanding presence on the cricket field with his superhuman deeds but also a polarising influence off it with his penchant for the good things in life.
Towards the middle of 1986, the colourful all-rounder was slapped with a two-month ban for admitting to the use of marijuana. On his return to Test cricket, he dismissed Bruce Edgar with his first delivery to draw abreast of Dennis Lillee, who then held the record for the most Test wickets (355).
Edgar fell to a catch in the slips by a flabbergasted Graham Gooch, who verbalised what most of the cricket world must have wondered: “Who writes your scripts, Beefy?”
Rishabh Pant: Batting like he never left
If someone in the Indian dressing room had asked Rishabh Pant the same question on Saturday, it wouldn’t have been out of place. In his first Test back since a life-threatening road accident on 30 December 2022, Pant never gave the impression that he had been away from Test cricket for a massive 633 days.
Batting with the cheeky impertinence of ever but fusing it with a maturity that had started to creep into his stroke-making even before the single-car accident, the irrepressible wicketkeeper-batter clattered to his sixth Test century at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, equalling Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the most Test hundreds by an Indian stumper.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsWELCOME BACK TO TEST CRICKET, RISHABH PANT! 🙌🏻💯#RishabhPant #INDvBAN #IDFCFirstBankTestSeries #JioCinemaSports pic.twitter.com/C4gJuv29Y1
— JioHotstar Reality (@HotstarReality) September 21, 2024
Rishabh Pant | How the wicketkeeper-batter compares to other legends including Dhoni and Gilchrist?
Pant is a force of nature, a compelling presence with the bat – needless to say – but also one of the great characters of the modern game.
At a time when cricket, and its followers, are bemoaning the proliferation of automatons who go through the motions as if merely pursuing a vocation, which in a larger sense they really are, Pant is a breath of fresh air not just with his audacious, electric ball-striking but also his pithy comments from behind the stumps to go with impeccable glovework, with the joie de vivre that is a constant companion, with his breezy outlook and a ready smile, with his backflips and his stunning athleticism.
The iconic PANTastic one-handed six has landed! 😍🔥#INDvBAN #IDFCFirstBankTestSeries #JioCinemaSports pic.twitter.com/od49Ll4Dl6
— JioHotstar Reality (@HotstarReality) September 21, 2024
Pant’s ready wit and presence of mind were first recognised on the tour of Australia in 2018-19 when Tim Paine, the then Australian captain and Pant’s wicketkeeping counterpart, asked the Indian if he could babysit for him and his wife after the series.
It was an acknowledgement on the Aussies’ part that sledging him wouldn’t work, but that they might elicit a lapse in concentration with more nuanced ‘banter’. Pant was up to the task, unfazed by the verbals behind him during a fabulous hundred in the drawn final Test in Sydney, after which he lined up for a photoshoot with the Paine kids that was shared on Instagram by the Australian skipper’s wife.
Already a hit in Australia for his youthful exuberance and his terrific stroke-production, Pant further endeared himself to the fans there by being a great sport. It’s hardly a surprise that he is one of the more popular overseas cricketers Down Under, respect for whom has grown exponentially following his spectacular 97 in a drawn game in Sydney and an unbeaten 89 that consigned Australia to their first defeat in Brisbane in more than three decades, both on the 2020-21 Covid-shackled tour.
In India, Pant’s following has acquired cult-like status. He is as much a hit with the kids as the seasoned cricket-watchers, the refreshing candour and an all-too-relatable demeanour touching chords and drawing admiration and adoration. It’s impossible for anyone to ignore the Pant presence out in the middle.
Much like his idol and mentor Dhoni, he is a bundle of wisdom behind the stumps, shouting a word of encouragement here, offering nuggets of advice there, alerting bowlers to possibilities, assisting his captains in DRS calls and sometimes even helping the opposition set fields, like on day three of the first Test against Bangladesh.
Even without all these extra trappings, Pant is a runaway hit with the masses. He is no respecter of pedigree or reputations, but when he comes charging down the track to belt Mitchell Starc over his head or when he astonishingly reverse ramps Jimmy Anderson and Jofra Archer, he does so without disrespect to his opponents. For someone so young to maintain such equanimity in the searing cauldron of international cricket is a special and unique trait.
Rishabh Pant —Coach, mentor, conceptualiser and executor
Pant has been gifted with numerous attributes – including a second lease of life, by his own admission – and he lives every day making the most of those gifts, not taking them for granted but polishing them and offering thanksgiving for the presents in his own inimitable manner.
In many ways, Pant is a throwback to the amateur era when enjoyment of the game more than financial rewards was the primary driving force. For all the fame and attention and money that have come his way, Pant has remained remarkably grounded and humble, a tribute to his upbringing but also to his propensity to pick the right people to emulate and seek mentorship from.
With the bat, he is his own coach, mentor, conceptualiser and executor. He has been fortunate that successive coaches haven’t tried to get him to conform to orthodoxy. Indeed, when Ravi Shastri was the India head coach, instead of asking him to be defensive and cautious, he opened his eyes to myriad attacking possibilities – such as playing the reverse sweep against the turn when an off-spinner bowled a leg-stump line with six men on the on-side – which drove Pant to challenge himself and become a more rounded, dangerous version of the prototype.
Still only 26 and with loads of cricket ahead of him, Pant has the potential to install himself as one of India’s all-time greats. It might seem preposterous to make such an outrageous claim at this stage, but preposterous and Rishabh Pant have gone well together for more than a half-decade now, so why stop now?
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