Rishabh Pant is the Rafael Nadal of Cricket not just because they are left handers. When he first played the onslaught tactics in test cricket, it was rated as cameo innings and the Cricket fraternity screamed and termed it as "irresponsible play". Pant held his head high and continued with it to leave a legacy of famous Australia and England victories. Beyond Test Cricket, his style of game is natural and business as usual in T20 and ODI. Probably Bazball had a fractionAl element of inspiration from Pant's book of pantastic adventures where anti-climax is guaranteed. In the hindsight as a blogger, I can say anything :)
Pant gets his adrenaline hero rush when Team India are in batting tatters and require rebuilding the innings to give an opportunity to sway the needle from "lose" to "win" side of the match machine. To the viewers eyes, we think Pant chooses matches to play his part rather than being consistent for inscription of record books. Rather Pant wears his Spider man attire right when it is required to take the team over the line (we have evidence as we have heard him singing spider man… spider man as captured by stump mic :) ) . Don't know if his song lines had an encrypted message as to what he wants to do on the field. Next time when Pant enters the ground, we need to pay attention if he is coming from the dressing room or somewhere from the corner of the pavilion :).
Pant lives in the current with a tab on the future when he decodes the bowlers in the middle. It is like honourable PM Narendra Modi's speech where we are mesmerised first with the organised mind that delivers the words not commenting the content as it depends on individual who consumes it. The mind must have a clear plan, courage in combination with physical skill to decode the bowlers but God knows how Pant does it when bowlers are in the peak of their spell. When Pant go to play, his body language seems to say that he has a good 360 degrees comprehend of the game and it is just matter of execution. Just like spider man who know every nook and cranny of the sky scrappers flinging the net from one building to another. We audience feel dizzy and struggle to keep up with it by sweating and panting. There is a lot of panting among the audience when Pant bat in. I experienced this on the Day 1 of the Edgbaston test. To enjoy Pant's batting, I highly recommend to watch at a venue rather than tele or OTT. The unbiased cricket lovers will enjoy his batting live and it was evident when an Englishman turned back to me and said "what a batsman he is". There was another gentleman in deep sleep even when the entire venue erupted on Pant's century. That require a skill as well :)
English woes with Pant continues. The plan would have been very easy. Get Pant out in the first ten balls. If not, he will provide more time to commiserate in bar by reducing the number of overs to play at the end. Beyond the first ten balls, it is very hard to stop him as he would start to unveil Kamal Hassan's dance like shot (short jab pull shot), Amithab's shot (reverse flick of prime pace bowler), talk with the bat hitting straight to the cricket pundits in the commentator box. Last but not the least, beyond his century the non-striker becomes a free ticket spectator with the best viewing position (mind the ball....wear helmet all the time) in the ground.
In my opinion, the ODI series was won when Hardik took Stokes's wicket and scored twenty odd runs in the twenty-sixth over of Topley, the in-form bowler. Pant will continue to play more attacking cricket if a player like Hardik is on the non-striker as it takes pressure off his shoulder. For England, the sway of needle from win to lose was probably due to a stumping chance missed by Butler.
England Cricket and Team India played this series to their potential offering audience a nail biting, shivering sip of BEvERage, mind and heart out of sync, pretending to not following game by not watching the scorecard as superstition, watching highlights in loop until mobile phone battery flat out, venting and winding friends on WhatsApp and many more. The blood pressure can stay normal now until the next one.
Fantastic series clap clap clap
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