It was the evening after India’s shocking defeat in the 2019 World Cup against New Zealand in Manchester, and we were yet to come to terms with what had transpired. India had failed to chase down 240 and the dream of winning the trophy had come to an end. The man most in the line of fire was Rishabh Pant. He had played an irresponsible shot and given it away.
Rishabh, understandably, was the subject of Twitter trolls and many called him overrated. He was considered overweight and slammed for his approach to the sport. Sitting in a Manchester restaurant that evening, Sourav Ganguly had said, “He will be your biggest match-winner in the next 10 years. Mark my words. He is blessed with the kind of talent I haven’t seen in a long time. Yes, he needs time, but he is a once-in-a-generation player.”
To be honest, I hadn’t believed him. Sourav was always fond of Rishabh, and I felt he was overstating things a bit. Almost six years down the line, one has to agree with Sourav when it comes to red-ball cricket. Two series-defining knocks in Australia, multiple hundreds in SENA countries and the pace at which he bats to help set up games – Pant has elevated himself to the status of a modern-day red-ball great.
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But now, it is different. Elevated to the status of vice-captain with no Virat Kohli and no Rohit Sharma in the team, Pant will have his task cut out. A poor IPL could complicate things, and the first thing he will need to do is get back the confidence. With Pant, it is all or nothing. There is no doubt that some days, he will fail because of his approach to batting. And the days he fails, he looks silly. But on days he succeeds, and his success rate in Test cricket is way more than his failures, he takes games away from the opposition.
Pant, unlike what many believe, is a thinking cricketer. He is not all slam-bang and there is always a method to his madness. After his Gabba exploits in 2021, he had explained how he knew that Nathan Lyon would try to get turn from the rough on middle and off stump and that was what prompted him to dance down the track and take him on. Pant was playing Lyon both on and off the pitch. He was winning the mind games, and in doing so, won India the match. It was the same against Jack Leach at Edgbaston. He beat Leach in the mind and managed to take the game away from England.
This is what we will need in England this time round as well. A switched-on Pant who is keen and hungry and determined to repay back the faith the selectors have shown in him. He needs to get away from the probing questions about failure. This isn’t white-ball cricket. It is red-ball and his comfort zone. He needs to enjoy the moment. Be in it and celebrate it. He is a genuine match-winner and every bit deserving of the red-ball vice-captaincy.
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