World T20: How fearless Rishabh Pant nosed ahead of Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal

But 10 months later, Pant had seemed cheerful to Atherton. The wicketkeeper-batsman showed him a surgery scar that started at the top of the knee and ended way down.

Rishabh Pant’s batting position will be a point of focus for India ahead of the T20 World Cup 2024 opener against Ireland. (BCCI)

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. When an unplayable ball is always on the cards, batsmen need to take risks. Pant did exactly that on the dodgy surface. 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. Even in the previous game against Ireland, he had played a good knock once Kohli got out. 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 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.

Since India don’t play the ‘smash and scoot’ brand of T20 cricket where every batsman is pathologically combative and instructed to only fly sorties, this seems to be the best-suited plan.

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 got named in the playing XI. Level 1 and 2 cleared but there was more. So what was it about Pant that made Rohit and Dravid pick him ahead of Yashasvi Jaiswal and even Shubman Gill in the team’s sacred Top 3?

India’s Rishabh Pant plays a reverse shot for six runs to seal the victory by 8 wickets against Ireland during an ICC Men’s T20 World Cup cricket match at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in Westbury, New York. (AP | PTI)

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 India-England 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 far away from the Indian team. He was out of sight, but wasn’t out of mind.

Against England, India would discover an all-format left-handed smasher in Jaiswal, but still Pant wasn’t forgotten. After the young Mumbai boy had pulverised the English bowlers, old hand Ravichandran Ashwin said: “He reminds me of Rishabh Pant, those two could be fun if they bat together!” 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 and even gifted a new prominent role. Rohit has an eye for talent, and values those blessed with nerves of steel. He 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 greatness. Rohit, sitting next to Ajinkya Rahane, wouldn’t have missed it.

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.

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