Rishabh Pant was spotted adopting a new strategy two days prior to his historic 50th Test appearance, but the lofted strokes still have the same excitement.
The explosive wicketkeeper-batter seemed to be following head coach Gautam Gambhir’s advice, as evidenced by his more composed body language and determination during India’s training session prior to the one-off Test against Afghanistan.
In Indian cricket circles, it is no secret that Gambhir was extremely irritated by Pant’s careless stroke choice during India’s last red-ball match against South Africa in Guwahati. At a time when the team expected more responsibility from one of its older players, Pant’s dismissal in both innings became a significant talking point and drew criticism.
Additionally, Gambhir’s hawk-eye was watching Pant from behind the nets as he negotiated spinners during the nets, with the goal being a rock-solid defense. The front-foot defense and backfoot defense from the head-down copybook were repeatedly demonstrated. Every now and then, those amazing hits would emerge from the closet.
It was clear from watching Pant that Gambhir must have spoken some plainspeak to the burly Rourkee man.
“I think he’s committed to playing a good role model and senior player. I actually heard him and Gauti (Gambhir’s nickname) having a chat around that yesterday. ‘How you want to conduct yourself as a senior player’, expanding to the communications or so, how you’re going to play,” PTI quoted assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate as saying when asked how Pant was adjusting to the recent changes, including his removal from vice-captaincy.
“I don’t think he needs a formal title to be a leader in an elite setup like this, and I think Rishabh understands that,” Ten Doeschate said.
Pant receives equal amounts of praise and anger for his game, which occasionally straddles the line between bravery and harakiri. Ten Doeschate doesn’t want him to stop being brilliant, but the team management does want him to be less impetuous depending on the circumstances of the game.
“With Rishabh’s brilliance, we don’t want to take away all the stuff that he does but occasionally if he can adjust his game to play the (match) situations slightly more, I think that’s something you’ll see him work on.”
On the field, a contented Rishabh Pant is a destructive one. Ten Doeschate and Gambhir are both aware of this. He would therefore reaffirm that Pant is content and that his status as one of the team’s senior players—second only to KL Rahul—would not be compromised by the change in vice-captaincy.
“He’s been in great spirits again. He’s always one of those guys who’s happy and cheerful and sort of drives the spirit in the team and we’ve got no complaints from him. You wouldn’t notice that his role in the leadership structure has changed, so no concerns about Rishabh, and I can’t wait to see him play again,” Ten Doeschate said.
