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Sarath Ramesh Kuniyl
Sarath Ramesh Kuniyl

CRICKET

Rishabh Pant — dynamite waiting to explode

PTI11_21_2015_000149B (File) Rishabh Pant | PTI

 

A glance through the list of highest run-getters in Ranji Trophy 2016-17 throws up an interesting result—as far as the eyes can travel down the list, there is not a single player whose strike rate exceeds 100, but one. And it is expected, since Ranji matches are played in whites, where the game is more relaxed. 

But, the colour of the jersey hardly matters for Rishabh Pant, who took the recent Ranji season by storm with a strike rate of 107.28—he ended up being the fourth highest run scorer with 972 runs in 12 innings at an average of 81. This, when the top scorer, Priyank Panchal of Gujarat, scored 1,310 runs from 17 innings—five more than Pant. The promising 19-year-old lad from Uttarakhand, who played for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy, finally made his T20 debut—youngest Indian to do so—in the third match against England in Bengaluru. He could face only three balls (enough to belt one boundary!), caused Yuvraj Singh to miss an easy catch, but picked up a crucial one later. 

However, there is no doubt that Pant is definitely in the scheme of things of coach Anil Kumble and Kohli. The teenager grabbed the only opportunity he got with both hands before the Bengaluru match, when he smashed a 36-ball 59 for India A in a warm-up match against England. With Team India, inevitably, having to look beyond Mahendra Singh Dhoni with an eye on the 2019 World Cup, the wicketkeeper batsman has a bright chance. He admitted in an interview that he was working hard on his keeping. With Wriddhiman Saha almost cementing his place in the Test side, the only vacancy seems to be in the shorter formats of the game. 

His prowess with the bat stands him in good stead in the limited-overs format. It was on this day a year ago that Pant took the Nepalese bowlers to the cleaners, with a 24-ball 78—a knock that made waves at the ICC Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh. He followed it up with a cracking century (111 in 96 balls) in the quarterfinal against Namibia. The same day Delhi Daredevils bought him for Rs 1.9 crore—his base price was only Rs 10 lakh—in the IPL 2016 auctions. Though Pant had an average first IPL season—198 runs in 10 matches at a strike rate of 130.26, averaging 24.75—he rubbed shoulders with some big names like Zaheer Khan, J.P.Duminy and Quinton de Kock. And not to forget one of the sharpest and toughest cricketing minds in world cricket, Rahul Dravid, was the mentor of Daredevils. 

Pant credits his success as much to his seniors as to his coach, Tarak Sinha, and his stint at the Sonnet Cricket Club, which has produced Indian stars like Ashish Nehra and Shikhar Dhawan, among others. The teenager has his heart set on the shorter format of the game, but the obedient pupil that he is, Pant gives Test cricket equal importance now because of Sinha's insistence. His philosophy, however, is the same for all formats—if a ball is there to be hit, go after it and if it's a ball to be left, leave it. Simple, huh?

It is this uncomplicated approach, perhaps, that got him four centuries, which included a triple century (308) against Maharashtra and the fastest century in Ranji trophy history (48 balls) against Jharkhand last season. His audacious shots—thanks to some brute power and great hand-eye coordination—might remind one of another marauder with the bat, Virender Sehwag. The swashbuckling former Indian opener, who also played for Delhi, was all praise for the youngster when he scored the triple hundred.

Interestingly, Pant always wanted to open the batting with his idol someday, but Sehwag moved to Haryana for the domestic season in 2015.

Whether Team India uses Pant as an explosive opener or hone him as a finisher remains to be seen. With a couple of big opportunities coming his way—Bangladesh and then Australia will be playing warm-up matches against India A—the teenager will leave no stone unturned to impress the selectors.

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