Whether playing at home or away, India’s top player, Rishabh Pant, is a box office attraction in red-ball cricket. He has achieved great success over the years despite the obvious risks associated with his unconventional strokes and eerie game style.
Rishabh Pant made history by being the only Indian wicketkeeper-batter to record two hundred runs in a single game during the current Headingley Test match against England.
Nasser Hussain, a former cricket legend, was also impressed by Rishabh Pant’s style of play and believed that coaching him must be extremely challenging because he is a hard nut to crack. Hussain claims that although Pant can enter a zone that can frustrate the onlookers, he can also return with some fierce knocks to give his team the upper hand.
“He (Rishabh Pant) must be an incredibly difficult bloke to coach because, as Sunil Gavaskar alluded to with his ‘stupid, stupid, stupid’ comment in Australia last winter, Pant will do things that absolutely wind you up, but he will also get hundreds — as he has done twice here,” he wrote in a column for the Daily Mail.
“There is method to his madness, but only he knows what it is, whether he is going to defend or attack, and because of that unique nature, I can see why it leads to opposition captains thinking outside the box,” the former captain of England stated.
Pant set the tone for the visiting team with a vital partnership for the sixth wicket with KL Rahul (137 off 247) after scoring 134 in the first innings of the first Test and matching it in the second attempt. As his partner, Pant acted as the aggressor, making sure that the approach was balanced to maintain the match from both ends.
Ben Stokes, the English captain, broke his attacking field setup after Pant hit an incredible 118 off just 140 balls in the second innings. This is something he hasn’t done much of since the Bazball method was modified. Nasser Hussain thinks that when the Haridwar-born batted, Pant made Stokes make a few mistakes to alter the field conditions and ensure that there were no slips. The 57-year-old believed that with the type of surface Headingley provides, there’s always a chance to gain the upper hand.
Stokes took off his slippers and replaced the fielders. I’ve rarely seen Stokes go on the defence like that. He obviously believed that he was more likely to get Pant stuck in the middle, which is why he did it, as I say. Although Pant is playing well, Headingley is still a venue where people are caught behind the wickets; almost half of all catches are made in the cordon, Hussain said.
England was given a target of 371 to pursue after Rahul and Pant’s outstanding knocks on Day 4 of the match. With caution, the hosts scored 21 runs in the opening six overs without losing a wicket. On the last day of the game, they now need 350 more runs to win, while the Indians only need 10 wickets. While a tie is undoubtedly a possibility, both clubs are optimistic about securing a victory that will give the supporters a great show on the final day.
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