India’s next global superstar steps up

Pant produced a cocktail of mesmerising strokeplay and impudence to deliver a third pivotal innings in two months

James Anderson, the most prolific fast bowler in Test history, was armed with the second new ball. He had two for 19 from 17 overs, and India had only a slender lead of 20 runs. Ordinarily, this would be a time to be respectful of the opponent’s greatness and the circumstances in the game.

But Rishabh Pant is a cricketer conditioned in a very different way of thinking. Always he senses opportunity, not peril. And so, rather than seeing a bowler of Anderson’s skill with a new ball, he sensed a moment to tilt the Test in India’s favour. To Anderson’s first ball, Pant charged and launched him through long off for four. To his next, he reached for a wide delivery and smeared it through the off side.

At the start of Anderson’s second over, Pant at least had the decorum to wait in his crease. Only, rather than meet the ball with the full face of the bat, he bent down on his front knee to reverse sweep – or was it more of a reverse scoop? – over the slips for four. One of the greatest bowlers in Test history was being bent to Pant’s will by a cocktail of impudence, skill and ingenuity.

At the start of the next over, Pant greeted Joe Root with a slog sweep over midwicket, nonchalantly clearing the man placed for the very shot to advance from 94 to 100 in one blow. It was a shot in keeping with Pant’s essence. In 2018, when lofting his second ball in Test cricket for a straight six, Pant became the 12th Test cricketer to get off the mark with a six. He is the only one of the 12 to have reached his maiden Test century with a six – and, when he slog swept Root, Pant ensured he had reached both his first home and away centuries with a maximum.

Over his 20 Tests, Pant has displayed an extraordinary sense of the shifting demands in Test cricket. In Ahmedabad, entering at 80 for four, with India’s prospects of reaching the World Test Championship newly jeopardised, Pant initially responded with studious calm. With his partner Rohit Sharma fluent, Pant reached only six from 23 balls.

Now, with selectivity and calculating, Pant accelerated. He used his feet to launch Root for a straight six in his first over – a strategic blow, for it limited Root’s first spell to two overs and induced him to overbowl Ben Stokes – drove Jack Leach through wide long off and then scythed the errant Dom Bess through the covers. Mostly, Pant’s trick was to score with alacrity while eschewing risk. When he brought up his 50 in 82 balls, he had only 22 in boundaries. But Pant does not need boundaries to score with haste: so fearful are opponents of what he can unleash that they allow him to pick off singles with ease. Always, though, the threat of violence remains. And in the moments before the second new ball, Pant sensed the time was now.

For all Leach’s excellence this series, England still recall how Pant looted 48 from 21 balls against the left-armer in the first Test. By providing a glimpse of similar intent in Ahmedabad – a violent swipe to reduce England’s lead to 10 – Pant spurred Root to whisk his front-line spinner out of the attack, with five overs left until the second new ball.

So, Stokes was brought back, still exhausted by his earlier exertions: a snapshot of how Pant disorientates the fielding captain’s plans. Now, against the old ball and then the new, Pant felt this was the time for a riotous assault. As India secured a lead, and rapidly advanced it, Pant looted 45 runs in 24 balls.

In the space of two months, Pant has played three innings that thrust themselves into Indian cricketing lore. His swashbuckling 97 on the final day at Sydney reordered the feel of the match and helped India claim a draw. His 89 not out in Brisbane brought clinical efficiency to a chase of 328 to win one of the greatest Test series of all. Having played the innings which sealed the series win in Australia, now Pant has almost certainly played the innings that has sealed a series win over England, too. All of this, and in 2021 Pant has not yet been glimpsed in probably his best format, T20.

This century, Indian cricket has had three figures who transcended their sport. The age of Tendulkar gave way to the age of Dhoni, which has now become the age of Kohli. After his feats this year, we may soon be speaking of the age of Pant.