There was a time when the Indian team struggled to have a quality wicketkeeper-batter which was evident by the fact that during the 90s and early 2000s, the team management tried several wicketkeepers including names like Nayan Mongia, Vijay Dhaiya, Parthiv Patel, Dinesh Karthik, and Ajay Ratra. The game of musical chairs was going on when it came to keeping wickets for India until the arrival of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in 2004. Since then India has been blessed with quality wicketkeepers like Rishabh Pant who succeeded Dhoni.
The Unconventional Style
Like Dhoni Rishabh also had an unconventional wicketkeeping technique a technique which wasn’t approved by the experts. But just like Dhoni it was Pant’s batting that took center stage and everyone agreed that his keeping would improve with time and that the youngster should continue to bat the way he does.
Pant shot to fame during the 2016 Under 19 World Cup in Bangladesh with a 24-ball 75 against Nepal which was the fastest half-century of the tournament and followed it up with a century against Namibia. Although India lost to West Indies in the final the biggest takeaway from the tournament was the emergence of Rishabh Pant. This is the way Pant played from the beginning of his career as a professional cricketer which is evident by the fact that a year after making his Ranji Trophy debut at 18 in 2015, Pant scored a triple-hundred against Maharashtra, followed by two blistering centuries in a game against Jharkhand a month on – one of them ending in 135 off 67 balls.
A solid outing in the Under 19 World Cup earned him an Indian Premier League contract with Delhi Daredevils in 2016 where he impressed everybody with his aggressive strokeplay.
The Debut
Pant received his maiden international call-up courtesy of a consistent run at the Under 19 level, IPL, and domestic cricket for the home series against England where the lefthander made his debut in the final T20I of the three-match series.
The second Ranji season for Rishabh wasn’t as good as the first one. But he made up for that in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He smashed the second-fastest hundred in T20 history in just 32 balls against Himachal Pradesh. This knock brought him into the selector’s reckoning again and he was named in the Nidhas Trophy team.
The Resurgence
Pant wasn’t able to make much of the opportunity in the Nidhas Trophy but the left-hander made a comeback in the 2018 IPL season where he scored a century against Sunrisers Hyderabad and was the lone warrior in a struggling batting lineup
Watch – Power-packed Pant notches maiden IPL ton
The Test Call-up
Pant was rewarded for his consistent performances at the domestic level with a maiden test call-up against England in 2018. The left-hander grabbed the opportunity with both hands as he scored his maiden test hundred at the Oval and was impressive behind the stumps too.
Rishabh followed it up with two scores in the Nineties against West Indies where he took the wicketkeeping duties in the absence of Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant’s maiden century in test cricket
The Comeback
Although Rishabh played a vital role in India’s first test series win in Australia with a hundred-plus score in the last Test at Sydney his form in limited overs cricket was under the scanner as the left-hander wasn’t able to fulfill the expectations of the team management both with the gloves and with the bat a scenario which has changed over time with his match and series winning century under pressure against England.
The Gabba Glory
Rishabh’s dip in form in white ball cricket resulted in him getting dropped from the playing XI for the first test against Australia in 2020 but an embarrassing loss in the opening test prompted the team management to include Pant in the team for the second test and rest as they say is history
The left-hander played a match-saving knock in the third test at Sydney and went a step ahead to script a memorable match-winning knock of 89 on day five of the last test at the Gabba which helped India register a memorable 2-1 series win against a full strength Australian side in the absence of senior Indian players like the then captain Virat Kohli
The Accident
Rishab’s life came to a halt when the wicketkeeper-batter met with an accident while traveling to his hometown on New Year’s Eve which was quite shocking. Thankfully Pant’s life was saved by the locals and he was rushed to the hospital immediately. The left-hander is on the verge of making a comeback in the upcoming IPL season after going through intense rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy.
Also Read – https://news24online.com/sports/ipl-the-journey-so-far/256870/
