Has the time come for Rishabh Pant to conquer the world?

Just a few days before Delhi’s first match in the IPL 2017, Rishabh Pant lost his father. He performed all the rituals in Haridwar and returned to be with his team just a day before the season opener in Bengaluru. As the match began, Pant’s eyes shouted the grief and determination which he was carrying. He played a crucial knock and almost single-handedly won his team the match. But, before he could ‘finish it off in style’, he lost his wicket. Probably, the slowest you will ever see Pant walk back to the dugout. As he walks back, his immense mental strength is etched all over the Chinnaswamy stadium. 

There’s no doubt that Pant possesses all the right attributes to become a legendary player. He has got an attacking game, he has got a bit of swagger with his presence and he definitely has the mental strength to endure pressure, something which he showed at the Gabba on what turned out to be one of the most memorable days in the history of Indian cricket. His unbeaten knock of 89 didn’t just cement his spot as the Test wicketkeeper but also begged to ask the question, has his time finally come? 

For someone, who has a 150+ score in Australia and a century on a day five Oval pitch, that would be a strange question to ask but that exact word can be used to also describe Pant’s international career. Having made his international debut in 2017 in a T20I, Pant’s career at the international stage, took off for a while, then got deflated and finally reached the heights at the Gabba in January 2021. 

The accidental Test debut

When Pant came along and started making headlines, it was confirmed that the IPL has a new kid on the blocks, who likes smashing oppositions out of the park for fun. However, Pant’s first-class endeavours with Delhi was making everyone quite excited. His record triple century, followed by a 48-ball ton in the Ranji season 2016-17, made more headlines than ever. It was only fitting that the emergence of Pant was happening during the twilight years of MS Dhoni’s career.

Even though his Ranji performances were enough to make a case for the Test side, the scepticism whether he can handle the pressure along with Wriddhiman Saha’s top-notch wicket-keeping skills meant the young lad had to wait a bit. But, then it happened. Saha got injured during the South Africa tour during 2017-18 season, ruling him out for a significant amount of time. Parthiv Patel got a call-up, but by the end of that tour, his keeping and batting returns had sent a message to the selectors, ‘look for someone else.’ 

And they did. Dinesh Karthik got drafted in the squad which took the flight to England in 2018 as the first-choice keeper, while Pant was just a back-up. But, the veteran failed to cement his spot once again. A 2-0 scoreline with three matches to go put panic in the Indian dressing room. The call had to be made and Virat Kohli decided to take that, he backed Pant ahead of Karthik, who could have been given one last go.

Fortunes turned for India in the third Test, even though Pant had not made a huge contribution with the bat. A number of catches taken behind the wicket meant Kohli was going to stick to his winning line-up for the rest of the series. Interestingly, Pant’s first scoring shot in Tests was a six straight down the ground against Adil Rashid. 

Two matches later, Pant scored a century at the Oval and had almost made a run chase out of nothing when the target was 464. A few months later, Pant was taking on the Aussies at their own backyard, from behind the wickets as well as in front of it. But, his long problem of sloppy glovework continued. He would drop catches, miss stumping and then take a blinder. A renowned man once said ‘a keeper’s best quality should be not getting noticed.’

But, there was some flamboyance that this keeper carried which kept him under the attention. Whether it was social media or experts, everyone couldn’t stop talking about Pant. It had almost become a thing for everyone. Each and every expert, commentator and social media person kept talking about Pant, whether he was performing, whether he wasn’t. So much so that, skipper Virat Kohli and senior pro Rohit Sharma had to come and request everyone to leave the kid alone. 

Getting dropped from the Test and limited-overs XI

Saha’s return and Pant’s indifferent form with the bat, saw him getting dropped from the Test squad. But by now, his IPL performances had got him into the white-ball side as India looked for MS Dhoni’s successor. During the 2019 World Cup, Pant was brought into the side midway through the tournament and was going to solve several problems. He was the answer to the questions, who is India’s no.4, who finishes games for the team if not Dhoni and lastly, who is the next Dhoni. The young man couldn’t solve a single problem and instead created a few for himself by sloppy performances. 

In 2020, during the first ODI against Australia, Pant got hit on the helmet. He couldn’t keep in that match as India went down miserably by 10 wickets. KL Rahul was handed the gloves for that game and the following one, as they weren’t any reserves. Kohli saw an opportunity to solve another problem, ‘Why don’t you play Rahul when he is scoring runs heavily?’ But, the turning point happened in the second ODI of that series, when Rahul came to bat at no.5 and looked like Dhoni in disguise.

It would have been stupid for Kohli to change the winning combination going into the decider and he didn’t. In the following month, Pant travelled with the Indian team through New Zealand as he saw KL Rahul keep wickets and Sanju Samson got opportunities ahead of him. 

A door of light opened up briefly for him during the red-ball leg of that tour. But, he messed it up with no remarkable scores in the four innings which he played. In his defence, no Indian batsman actually made a huge contribution during those two matches. And then the pandemic happened. Pant was all the news again and he had become the favourite player to talk about. And it seemed that every expert had an opinion or suggestion for the left-hander.

And why not, his name was pulling all the clicks on social media. To top that, his team management wasn’t giving him the right message after all. One day, he is the no.4 in the World Cup semi-final playing as a pure batsman and on a different day, his captain would say ‘playing Rahul as a keeper allows his team to have an extra batting option.’ Having seen things from the outside, it often felt that message which was sent across to the young batter wasn’t correct and at the same time, indifferent. Maybe, that’s Kohli and Shastri’s way of saying, ‘buckle up, if you don’t perform to your potential, soon we will have someone else do that for us.’

The comeback of all sorts and what the future holds?

In the IPL 2020, Pant had a nightmare of a season. His only score of fifty came in the final but otherwise, he had a disappointing season. He wasn’t even picked for the white-ball squad for India and flew to Australia as a red-ball specialist. Had someone told me that this term will be associated with Pant a few years back, we both would have laughed and rubbed it off. As everyone would have expected, Pant didn’t get a look for the first Test.

Kohli backed Saha, who himself had an impressive IPL with the bat. But, a 36 all-out and panic around the dressing room allowed Rahane to squeeze Pant once again into the side. He had an instant impact, not with the gloves nor really with the bat, but with his chirping voice behind the stumps. It was Melbourne, it was Australia, it was Pant behind the stumps. A call back to the 2018 Test where the 23-year-old was politely asked whether he would babysit for the Australian captain. 

During India’s first innings in the MCG Test, Ajinkya Rahane and Ravindra Jadeja were the pillars of the foundation, but the momentum shifted right after Rishabh arrived. He was taking quick singles and hitting the bad balls for boundaries. The cameo was positive, unlike any of the innings which Pant had played during IPL 2020.

It was almost that everyone had stopped talking about him. But, in Sydney, his sloppy glovework caught everyone’s attention again. But, the way in which he played on that day five pitch made everyone take a moment and notice. Some would call his shot selection on 97 as reckless, but that is Pant’s way of playing. He plays his shots, he steps down the ground and he takes on the best. It was just an occasion of a fine off-spinner getting better off a batsman, who had belted boundaries for fun in the past hour or so. 

But, that innings at the Gabba showed what Pant could do. He is just that sort of a bloke. The fact that he can advance down the ground and try hitting a six over wide long-on right after Nathan Lyon has just spun one dramatically from his leg stump to drift away from him, shows one thing, courage. Something which Rishabh Pant has plenty of. He is the young generation, which wants to dominate and not get dominated. When it comes off, its genius, when it doesn’t, it’s reckless.

Let’s cut this young man some slack. He knows a few ways to bat, but not trying to take on the opposition is not one of them. From here, whether Pant comes back to the white-ball cricket or not, would be interesting to see. But, his knock at the Gabba will forever be etched in history books. Yes, it is too soon to call him the next Adam Gilchrist or MS Dhoni. For now, let us just let Rishabh Pant be what he is, a fearless cricketer with immense mental strength.