Rishabh Pant conjures maverick magic to cap remarkable comeback to Test cricket

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“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” echoed the words of Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar. The first player to ever reach 10,000 Test runs, he is known as ‘Sunny’ to his mates, Mr. Gavaskar to you or I, and as a demi-god to the 1.5 billion people of India.

“He should not be going into the Indian dressing room,” Gavaskar continued, live on air for ABC Radio in Australia. His fit of rage continuing as his co-commentator, the experienced Harsha Bhogle, himself a veteran of over 30 years of broadcasting, looked and listened on in cowed disbelief.

“He should be going into the other dressing room,” concluded Gavaskar.

The player responsible for the outburst was Rishabh Pant. The maverick’s maverick, Pant is one of few athletes in the world capable of eliciting such strength of emotion from onlookers. The cricket you dream of is his reality. When it works, it’s wonderful; but when it doesn’t, it can look woeful.

open image in gallery Rishabh Pant’s unconventional technique nonetheless proved effective at Headingley ( Getty Images )

Gavaskar’s dressing down was the result of the latter. With the match in the balance, Pant had gone for a scoop off Aussie bowler Scott Boland and succeeded only in finding the fielder in the deep. Pant plays these shots while falling over. And so as the ball settled in the hands of Nathan Lyon, he found himself on his backside both figuratively and literally.

The thing with mavericks is just as strongly as the emotion burns in you when they fail, equally it glows when they succeed. And as Pant soaked in the celebrations that accompanied him bringing up his second century of the match at Headingley, he looked towards the media balcony where a beaming Gavaskar was standing in applause, imploring Pant to recreate his celebration of day one where he debuted a front flip upon reaching three figures. Pant acknowledged the legend’s request, smiled, and waved it away.

“You just stand there and admire and sometimes scratch your head,” Pant’s batting partner KL Rahul said of his teammate after play. Rahul, himself, made 137. “He’s a unique player and you just leave them be.”

Pant is well en route to becoming arguably the greatest wicketkeeper batter to ever live. An average of 44.44 speaks to his consistency; the 82 sixes he has hit in only 77 innings speaks to his chaos. In ten matches in England he has made four centuries, the joint most of any wicketkeeper in history along with Alec Stewart and Matt Prior, two of England’s longest ever serving wicketkeepers. MS Dhoni, India’s most-loved wicketkeeper in history, made six Test centuries in total. Pant already has eight. Not to mention the seven times he has been dismissed in the nineties.

open image in gallery Rishabh Pant celebrated his first-innings century with a gymnastics tumble ( PA Wire )

Pant’s achievements are all the more remarkable given the near fatal car accident he suffered in 2022. Driving along a motorway in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, Pant’s car struck the central reservation after he fell asleep at the wheel. It was a miracle he survived.

“It’s a remarkable comeback, honestly,” said Aussie great Ricky Ponting, who is close with Pant after working together in the Indian Premier League.

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“If you can even see his leg now, and if you listen to the stories he tells about what he confronted when he woke up on the side of the road having been thrown out of his car 40 metres up the road at 200kph, I mean…”

Pant’s return to the Test arena took just under two years, a stage where, despite his legend in the shorter formats, he describes as the one “where I belong most”.

open image in gallery Rishabh Pant was involved in a near-fatal car crash ( AP )

Pant’s twin centuries showcase how fast cricket and life moves on. India are a new-look side. Pant, himself, a newly appointed vice-captain. The question was what shape would India take after losing the father figures of the side in Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin and Rohit Sharma all in one go. Within the space of three days, the answer is already clear: Rishabh’s.

Greater responsibility brings the expectation of greater maturity. But it also gives the chance for greater mischief. After all, an 18-year-old is allowed in both the voting booth and the pub. Pant said ahead of the series that he relished the chance for greater responsibility and confirmed he’d be batting at number five. But that extra responsibility hasn’t quelled his eccentricities.

“He has a method to his batting which none of us in this room understand,” Rahul continued when describing Pant. “But it works for him and he’s gotten hundreds all over the world.”

open image in gallery There is little conventional about the way Rishabh Pant bats ( AFP via Getty Images )

When facing seam, he still runs down the wicket and charges the seamers. When faced with spin, he still wallops the ball for sixes at will and takes risks others wouldn’t consider. All while providing a commentary soundtrack for the world to listen to.

“No twos between these two,” joked Harry Brook at Pant and KL Rahul’s expense, inferring the duo don’t fancy running that much against the spin of Shoaib Bashir.

“If he bowls a full toss, no twos,” came Pant’s reply with one eye on Brook and the other on the stand he planned on hitting the ball into.

Pant spent 26 balls in the nineties. An uncharacteristic show of nerves, but not a surprising one for a player who has been dismissed within ten runs of a century on seven occasions. Pant’s blase attitude to the ‘nervous nineties’ is his personality in a nutshell. He’s not here for personal accolades. But his nudges and nurdles as the three figures approached suggested that it wasn’t a habit he wished to turn into a tradition.

open image in gallery Rishabh Pant’s consistency belies his ( PA Wire )

A cut into the offside brought up the century and saw the entirety of Headingley rise to their feet. Pant is a rare player that entertains those who are new to the sport, and wows those who are old to it. At Headingley this afternoon, a player who will go down in history, made today his.

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