The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
X-rays to X factor
A car accident battered his bones but could not bruise the beautifully audacious brain of India's new No. 3, Rishabh Pant
LAST YEAR during the 50-over World Cup, former England captain and cricket correspondent for The Times newspaper, Michael Atherton bumped into Rishabh Pant in a Bengaluru hotel gym. He would mention in his tour diary how the Indian superstar, all alone doing his endless repetitions, reminded him of the long, lonely hours athletes are forced to spend during rehabilitation.
In December 2022, Pant, driving his SUV late at night on the Delhi-haridwar highway, drove into a divider. The vehicle was damaged beyond repair, his right leg equally mangled. Most bones had been smashed, every ligament had snapped - the lower part of the right leg hung at a worrying angle. But Pant that day, 10 months after the accident, looked cheerful to Atherton. The wicketkeeper-batsman showed him a surgery scar that started at the top of the knee and ended way down.
Cut to his international return at the T20 World Cup. Back in India blue, playing on a wicked wicket where balls flew after pitching, Pant was being tested - first as a 'keeper and later as India's newly-promoted frontline batsman. In India's first two games, the No.3 has looked the part.
On the highly unpredictable New York pitch, Pant threw caution to the winds. Even after the loss of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli against Pakistan on Sunday, he continued to go for his shots, scoring 42 from 31 balls to be the team's top scorer. In the previous game against Ireland, he scored an unbeaten 36 to take India home after Kohli got out early. Pant showed no visible scars - physical or mental - of the horrific accident and the frustrating healing process.
India seemed to have found the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle they had been searching for a while now. Pant brings to the plate the much-needed T20 audacity that a top order of Rohit and Kohli had lacked. India had the cast but now they have roles too.
Before Pant arrived on the scene, the team management was dealing with a pile of batsmen who could be broadly divided into two boxes. The first was of Test and ODI stalwarts Rohit and Kohli, the two most experienced players exuding solidity. The second box had T20 natives Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube, and had aggression written all over it. Now a third box has been commissioned, it's designated to Suryakumar Yadav and Pant, the two bonafide hitters known to play unconventional shots but who are not seen as T20 specialists.
Till recently, Pant wasn't quite the consensus candidate to be India's No.3 at the T20 World Cup. At the start of the IPL, the game's stake-holders were not sure about him. IPL, many thought, was seen as an outing to check his fitness. There were Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel, Jitesh Sharma and even Dinesh Karthik. He was way back in the queue but Pant beat them all to make it to the World T20 squad. Once in the US, he convinced the captain and coach that he was a better option than Sanju Samson and even Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Never forgotten
Maybe, it was the faith and belief that the team had in the proven match-winner, a big-stage performer and contrarian not afraid to take on the game's stalwarts. In case we were attentive, there were stray comments that underlined the robust reputation that Pant enjoys in the Indian dressing room.
This happened twice during the Indiaengland Test series at the start of the year, when Pant was far from making a comeback. The world saw him only on social media - in a wheelchair post surgery, with the physio discarding crutches, walking in the pool with a trainer and finally him making a non-serious attempt at batting with amateurs. Pant was out of sight but not out of mind, for his team mates.
During the England series, India would discover an all-format left-handed smasher in Jaiswal. But Pant wasn't forgotten. After the young Mumbai boy had pulverised the English bowlers, Ravichandran Ashwin said: “He reminds me of Rishabh Pant ..” When Rohit was asked about England opener Ben Duckett's ridiculous comment of Jaiswal getting inspired by Bazball, he would smirk and say, “There was this guy called Rishabh Pant, probably Duckett hasn’t seen him bat.”
So as soon as Pant recovered, he was drafted in. Rohit has seen his audacity from up close. The captain was just outside the boundary rope during Pant's finest hour. From the decisive fourth Test of the 2021 Border-gavaskar Trophy, there was a moment that captured Pant's rare trait.
Facing GOAT offie Nathan Lyon, Pant had received a ball that pitched on leg-stump and deviated devilishly towards slip. Amused by the massive turn, Lyon smiled. Pant stayed poker- faced. His true intentions were clear the very next ball. As the bowler floated another in the air, Pant jumped out and hit the ball for a six. The stroke defied cricket wisdom, even common sense.
Years later when a documentary was made on the storied Brisbane Test, Pant would speak about his mad move and madder method. “Top bowlers don't think that a batsman will take a chance after the ball has turned that much. But mere dimang mai alag hi planning chal rahi thi. Agar mere area mai ho toh, I will hit. More so since he didn't expect me to do so,” he said.
The other day in New York, Pant finished off the chase against Ireland with a ridiculous reverse-lap on a diabolical pitch with uneven bounce. Rohit would have smirked. He would have been happy to see that the horrific car accident hadn't changed that priceless trait in the player he had backed. The audacity was still there in the big heart of the little rebel. His body might have been damaged, left scars on him, but his batting soul had come out unscathed.
India seemed to have found the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle. Pant brings to the plate much-needed T20 audacity that a top order of Rohit and Kohli had lacked.