Melbourne: There is a sense of anticipation as Rishabh Pant makes his way to the middle. In India. In Australia. In any part of the world, because he tends to give the crowd what they want without ever really having to go out of his way to. For what Pant wants is exactly what the crowd wants — an innings that thrills.
But the Australia tour, by his standards, has been tame so far. The returns at the crease have been paltry — 3 matches, 5 innings, 96 runs, a high score of 37, all of this at an average of 19.20 and a strike-rate of 60.00. He has dropped catches that have hurt India and just hasn’t settled into the kind of rhythm that can hurt Australia.
The thrills have been lacking too — there was a half-volley for six over fine leg off Pat Cummins at Perth and there was the outrageous reverse pull for four off Scott Boland during the pink-ball Test, but that’s about it.
On Saturday, India had their first training session at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Boxing Day Test is still a few days away and this was the perfect opportunity to fit some hard drills in for the batters.
It was an intense training session which saw skipper Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill focus on leaving as many deliveries as possible in the corridor of uncertainty.
But Pant’s problems haven’t as much been technical as they have been mental. He is batting ahead of Rohit and in the same position that Travis Head has used to go after the Indian bowlers.
On most days, Australia’s top order has played enough deliveries to soften up the ball and tire out the Indian attack before Head comes in to bat. India hasn’t quite done that for Pant. A newer ball has proved to be infinitely more challenging and that has proved to be the left-hander’s demise.
So, as the session was winding down, it was interesting to see Pant and head coach Gautam Gambhir have a long chat in the nets. And it looked serious. The banter that is usually part of every conversation that the 27-year-old initiates was missing.
And what seemed like a rather impromptu tete-a-tete went on for roughly 45 minutes. They could have been discussing Delhi, their base, for all we know but an educated guess would be that this was about his batting.
The No.5 position in the batting order has been the one from where the counterattack has been launched in this series. And over the last five years, that is where Pant has found great success.
He is the fifth highest run-scorer in the world at the No.5 position over the last five years with 1170 runs at an average of 55.71. In that period, he has scored those runs at a better average than Head (2025 runs @ 46.02), and now India need him to get going again.
Rather than being viewed as criticism, the conversation with Gambhir was all about being a pick-me-up for Pant. A pep talk if one may call it.
This was Gambhir’s calling card at the Kolkata Knight Riders before he took up the India job. He was really good at making youngsters believe in themselves and play fearless cricket. In Pant’s case, he’s already been there, done that. This is more a case of rediscovery rather than invention. A little push in the right direction when the going’s a little tough.
After he was done with Gambhir, Pant ran into the bowling coach Morne Morkel and once again fists were bumped, an arm was slung across Pant’s shoulder, and a few pats on the back were in order. This was a team rallying around a player who can potentially throw Australia’s pacers off-track in much the same way Head does to India’s.
Pant is a batter who, when in form, will put the pressure back on the bowlers right away. He targets areas that are not covered by orthodox fields and that makes him really tough to stop. In a series as low-scoring as this one, he could be the difference.
Then, as he was walking off the training ground, a few fans called out to Pant. He stopped, had a short conversation, smiled, left them smiling and made his way out. He’s still the crowd pleaser off the field. India just hopes he can be one on the field too.
