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You can tell
when a cricketer is being hunted - be it by his own demons or those belonging
to the system and its hunting dogs.
The system,
what’s that? It’s most of us really. From the chorus of Dhoni! Dhoni! whenever
Pant slips, to Head coach, Ravi Shastri going public with his criticism of
Pant’s approach or lack thereof.
To Sanjay
Manjrekar, who has made no bones of airing his displeasure on commentary while
watching Pant bat – in the first T20, when Pant lifted a slow bouncer over the
keeper’s head for four, Manjrekar fixated on the lack of grace in the shot.
Forget batting, Manjrekar wants Pant to work on his ballet.
But these
are opinions, of common people, of those in team management and of those in air.
And there’s
only one way for Pant to shut them all up, and it’s down to one of his coach’s
favourite clichés – he has to make his bat do the talking.
Till
recently, in the build-up to this season’s IPL, Rishabh Pant was to the manor
born. He was the face of choice, the daredevil who took on Kohli and Dhoni in
somewhat audacious ads. It obviously did give him some entitlement – you have
to be inhuman to not feel elevated taking on Kohli and Dhoni, albeit in ads.
But that was
that. And starting with those cheeky ads, things started to go downhill. Pant
had had a spectacular 2018 season – 2019 paled in comparison. More so, as the
expectations were far more, and he was now a key player in the mix, perhaps his
franchise’s most vital batsman.
While Pant
was still striking at 162, he was down from 173 in 2018 - 488 runs in 16 matches, down from 684 in 14.
Averaging 37.5, down from 52.6.
***
It didn’t
take much to hurl a comparison with Dhoni at Pant. Pant wasn’t competing with
himself, he was up against Dhoni lore.
In one over,
man of the match, Mushfiqur Rahim was LBW twice – it’s just that India failed
to review. But where does the mind travel to – Dhoni of course. Dhoni the
champion, tactical reviewer – the man who Kohli turns to, the man who makes the
final call with the slightest of pokerfaced nods.
Instead,
here was India, with Pant. So what if captain, Rohit Sharma was at first slip,
and Yuzvendra Chahal was bowling.
Rohit, 32,
with 99 T20Is. Chahal, 29, with 32 T20Is. Pant? Pant, 22 last month, 21 T20Is.
Add to that,
an uncertain Pant, when asked by his captain about an edge, answered in the
affirmative – review lost.
But before
all this was Pant the batsman – and before that were two batsmen, Shikhar
Dhawan and KL Rahul striking below 100.
But somehow
both Manjrekar and Gavaskar decided to be highly vocal in blaming Pant for
Dhawan’s run out.
That very
Dhawan who had earlier in the innings blindly sauntered for a non-existent
single, only to jog back like a senior citizen. That very Dhawan who had hijacked
the innings till the 15th over, for a mind-numbing 41(42). That very
Dhawan who continues to rake in T20s because of his ODI reputation. That very
Dhawan who last scored a half century 12 T20I innings back.
But also
that very Dhawan who notched five 50s in IPL ’19 – and can be a one-man army in
winning tournaments.
Meanwhile,
best not to forget, that this was still the Feroz Shah Kotla pitch. You can
call the stadium what you want, but this pitch was Kotla all the way.
Misread the
pace, think it’s an imposter and you’ll be fooling yourself.
In the end,
Rishabh Pant batted with the knowledge that a headmaster’s ruler isn’t far from
his fingertips. He also batted with the same knowledge as KL Rahul and Shikhar
Dhawan did before him – this is the Kotla. Far too many teams, Delhi Daredevils
especially, have been knocked over for sub 100 scores here. To aim for 120-130,
and then go all out in the last few with wickets in hand is possibly the best
way forward.
Shreyas Iyer
did what he often does at the Kotla – go at the spinners. But even he fell to a
spinner.
Finally,
Pant finished with three 4s, the most by an Indian batsman, his strike rate was
just a shade over 100.
Even VVS
Laxman who rarely if ever criticizes any Indian batsman felt Pant needs to work
on his singles early on.
It may not
be wrong to say, here at least, he learns from the best in the business –
Dhoni, who else.
Or is
everyone too blind-sighted to see the dot-ball collective at the start of a
Dhoni innings?
But no, when
Dhoni does it, it’s with the knowledge that he will accelerate later on. When
Pant does it, even if it’s the Kotla, it’s just a free for all for meme wallahs.
***
Players like
KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya could well be easy targets for the
media. But each one still has the wherewithal to be a once in a generation limited
overs’ player. More so, T20 masters.
India sadly
lacks such players – over the years, they have embraced ODI batsmanship far
more readily, possibly because the very format is an ode to the Dhoni and Kohli
schools of cricket.
T20 however,
much as it can be programmed, also demands something far more impulsive, almost
manic. Surely not in all 6-7 batsmen, but having the oddball Mad Max is where
you toast the very format.
And Ravi
boss, you can’t throw caution to the winds without factoring in failure.
Accepting the latter will help you tap into the best of your players. Unless
you want all your batsmen to bat like each other.
***
India and
Delhi Capitals will be best served not to try and make a shirt out of Pant. Isn’t
it obvious, he was not meant to be top half material. As they say, the fun
starts when Pant comes down.
