WHAT IS A PANT?

On Test Cricket's greatest enigma

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I love analyzing sport. It's probably my favourite thing about watching the game. Having spent hours on Statsguru to know a player inside out, watching too many Jarrod Kimber videos, and reading countless articles every week, I think I have a pretty solid grip on the game. 

Then I watch Rishabh Pant bat, and start to question everything.

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Test batters can be loosely classified into 2 broad strategies.

“He who laughs last, laughs longest”.

These are the patient builders. The traditionalists, taking time to suss out the conditions, the bowlers and the field, slowly but surely keeping the scoreboard ticking. Their games are built on rock solid defensive technique, and the ruthless ability to put the bad ball away. This, coupled with their never ending patience, means they can afford to see out the good spells, and hope to cash in when the bowlers are tired. 

These are your Pujaras, your Dravids. Guys who will deadbat the whole 90 overs if they need to. Because that's how highly they value their wicket.

“We're here for a good time, not a long time”.

These are the mavericks. The fast scorers, the risk takers and the strokemakers. Their theory is also quite sound: in Test cricket, a wicket ball is always around the corner, so might as well maximise the amount of runs scored while you're still on the crease. 

The best exponent of this is probably Virender Sehwag. A strike rate of 81 was probably the average ODI strike rate in his era, and this dude was casually maintaining such a high strike rate in Tests! Arguably, his defence wasn't the greatest, and thus it made a lot of sense for him to lean heavily into this strategy.

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Which brings us to Pant. Watch him for any amount of time and you can tell this guy doesn't struggle with defence. When he defends, he does so with soft hands, almost as if he's gonna let go of the bat, and meets the ball as close to his body as he can. I think we can conclude that he doesn't suffer from the kind of technical deficiencies that mavericks usually suffer from.

Then why do you see him falling across trying to get the ball to fine leg? He doesn't need to do this. He can afford to get stuck in, just rotate the strike, and play the long game, knowing he can flick the switch any time he needs to. The advantage of having every shot in the book is that he can punish the same bad ball about 6 different ways. So why does he do this?

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I have watched cricket for as long as I have been alive. There isnt' a time in my life that I can recall where I wasn't consuming cricket. I have tried to make sense of this. I have read countless rationalizations of his method. That he charges down the track second ball to a fast bowler to put him off. That he paddle sweeps because the matchup makes sense. That he doesn't trust his defence against top quality bowling,

There's probably some truth to all these theories, I thought.

All that went out the window when I saw him smash Woakes for a six. In the last over of the day. With a fielder placed exactly where he hit it.

It finally clicked in my head. There is no cricketing logic to this. No post-hoc rationalizations that can make sense. Pant plays Test cricket as if it insulted his family. Every step he takes, every action he does so violently goes against the edicts of this format, you'd think there's a personal grudge motivating him. Almost his way of saying “you dare test ME, mortal?”

Sportsmen are immensely confident beings. Playing in front of millions, knowing every action will be scrutinized, and yet having the courage and ability to execute anyways, takes almost a delusional level of self-confidence.

Rishabh Pant takes it to another level. There is simply no room for self doubt. He tries shots on the international field you wouldn't even try to shadow bat to. Risk-reward analysis is for people who believe there is a chance of the risk. Pant doesn't see things the same way. If he thinks he can reverse lap Jimmy Anderson, he will do it. His is not a game focusing on cricketing sense, but only execution.

Maybe it's an ego thing. Maybe, in his head, it all somehow makes sense. Or maybe he's in the wrong profession. Maybe he was destined to be an entertainer, and accidentally ended up becoming the best wk-bat the country has ever produced. Because the way he plays, you'd think there's always only one thing in his mind : how can I make the next ball an event?

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So maybe there is a third kind of Test batter after all. The Rishabh Pant. A cricketing genius so unique that he deserves his own category.