Rishabh Pant may have many detractors when it comes to his batting and keeping. With the bat, he plays irresponsible shots in a tense situation that brings the team morale down. With the gloves, he has dropped catches regularly as it was witnessed on the first day of the Sydney Test when he dropped Will Pucovski not once but twice. However, there is no denying numbers. After his knock on day 3 of the Sydney Test against Australia, Rishabh Pant is now greater than Sir Viv Richards when it comes to consistency and batting in Australia. Rishabh Pant shared a crucial stand with Cheteshwar Pujara after the dismissals of Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari. At the lunch break, he was unbeaten on 29. What is so great about the knock, one may ask?
In the course of his knock, Rishabh Pant has smashed his ninth consecutive score of 25+ in Australia. This has broken the earlier record of eight consecutive knocks set by England legend Wally Hammond, West Indies superstar Sir Viv Richards and India’s Rusi Surti. Rishabh Pant’s last nine knocks in Australia read 25, 28, 36, 30, 39, 33, 159*, 29 and now another 29*. The knock of 159 came at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2019 and this is the highest score by an Indian keeper in an overseas Test. Rishabh Pant also shared a crucial partnership with Ajinkya Rahane in Melbourne that turned the course of the game and ensured India won the Boxing Day Test for the second straight time.
Records yet criticised
Rishabh Pant has several records to his name and he played a crucial role in India winning the 2018/19 series in Australia. His glovework, batting and sledging was memorable as India dominated. However, lately, his keeping and batting fell away and he lost his place to Wriddhiman Saha in the Test matches. After Wriddhiman Saha failed in Adelaide, Rishabh Pant has repaid the faith slightly but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.
Ricky Ponting, who was the head coach of the Delhi Capitals side that features Rishabh Pant, said that he was disappointed with his keeping but added that Rishabh Pant was lucky that Will Pucovski could not capitalise on the opportunities. Rishabh Pant will be hoping that he can repeat his heroics of 2019 and put India on top in the third Test against Australia.
