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Pant defies pain, lends solidity to India’s response
The wicketkeeper-batter smashed his eighth fifty in England and has aggregated most runs in England by an Indian wicketkeeper in a single series
Kolkata: There is no half measure in Rishabh Pant’s dictionary. The sight of Ben Stokes swooping down on the ball at short cover however can make even the bravest hesitate. KL Rahul was eager to get on strike though, and so Pant went with the call anyway. It was the kind of one-handed pickup and throw that every batter dreads while scurrying to the danger end. Pant tried to make up for the hesitation, but replays also suggested he had almost given up towards the end.
On the cusp of lunch, the run-out had a briefly teetering effect on India’s innings. Rahul departed two overs into the post-lunch session, Nitish Reddy consumed 20 balls and survived two close run-out attempts to get off the mark and India’s run rate slipped as a result. Had that run out not happened, India could have well finished the day on a different note. It’s not like he didn’t do Rishabh Pant things or have a Rishabh Pant effect on the match.
He came in at the fall of skipper Shubman Gill in the last hour of the second day, with India needing to survive that session as well as score at a brisk pace. The run rate was nearly four when Pant was run out, which in the context of how England had deliberately tried to slow down the Test, was match-altering.
In the process, Pant has now equalled MS Dhoni’s record of eight fifties in England. His aggregate in this series is 416, the most by an Indian wicketkeeper in England. Thirty-five sixes against England saw him go past Viv Richards’ tally of 34, and overall Pant is now level with Rohit Sharma and just three shy of Virender Sehwag’s 91 sixes in Test cricket. To give some context, this is Pant’s 46th Test, 21 fewer than Rohit’s 67, 58 less than Sehwag.
But this was also like no other innings from Pant. Batting through pain because of the injury to the left index finger, he started on a sedate note but was getting increasingly fidgety, possibly because the effect of painkillers was wearing off. Or he just wanted to get on with the game. There was a 16-ball lull when Pant didn’t get a single run despite risking everything, including a reverse swipe off Chris Woakes. A thumping boundary down the track finally broke the shackles, tantalizingly setting up the morning session for India.
Block or throw the kitchen sink, Pant’s approach was understandable. England tried to cramp Pant by aiming at his body, and Stokes landed a sucker punch by hitting him on his injured hand. Pant shrugged that off by getting inside a short ball from Stokes, hooking him over long-leg for a six that got him to his record fifty.
Taking on Shoaib Bashir’s off spin was only a matter of time, and Pant did it in style by lofting him straight down the ground. But he was also getting edgy. A premeditated lap sweep against Woakes going awry, taking on a short ball that Zak Crawley nearly caught at deep fine leg were signs of that unease. It finally culminated into a run out, only the third in Pant’s career.
