Mumbai: One felt it was nigh impossible for Rishabh Pant to play an innings of greater impact than his 89* at the Gabba. If not for his contentious caught behind dismissal in last week’s Mumbai Test, his 64 could well have entered exceptional territory.

Nevertheless, his 57-ball 64 on a raging turner in the fourth innings was a mini classic. Particularly, when one considers how listless the rest of India’s batting line-up looked against spin in the series loss against New Zealand.

Pant is not one to lament on what could have been, as his seven 90s (as compared to his six Test hundreds) testify. But at the same time, he is one who will always show great trust in his own method. He’ll back himself to the hilt and there is no denying he was India’s biggest positive with the bat; scoring the most runs (261) in a low-scoring series, at a superb strike-rate of 89.38.

METHOD BEHIND MADNESS

The Delhi dasher has shown time and again how he can bat at breakneck speed, but it’s not just that — there’s a method to his madness. Take India’s last innings run chase in Mumbai. India were chasing 147. Survival was difficult on a pitch turning square. Equally dangerous was the arm ball; the one that would go straight on. The Kiwi spinners had come armed with expertise from their Sri Lankan bowling coach Rangana Herath - masking the release, bowling with in-out fields. Pant, however, had his own plans.

Even when the famed Indian batters were falling cheaply at the other end, Pant didn’t curb his naturally attacking ways. The opposition tried to not offer any air by bowling flatter and quicker.

And as a result, Pant managed only one six when he was allowed to come down the track. But he was seeing the ball early and would rock onto the back foot to target the region behind square. Six of his nine boundaries came in that region.

“When Rishabh was trying to run down, I was getting quicker and flatter. Then once I started slowing it up, knowing that he was at the crease, he started going back and using that to his advantage. Then it changed me to start bowling quicker again,” New Zealand left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel said, recalling their cat-and-mouse battle in a virtual media call on Tuesday. “Something that he did really well was to read the conditions and change his style of play when he needed to.”

“He’s immensely talented. The amount of power he has, he puts pressure on you from ball one. He doesn’t have that sense of fear of being dismissed. He also used his skill sets and uses the right match-ups,” he added.

Pant was the one to check Patel, who is New Zealand’s senior-most spinner, for most of the series. He did that in particular with his attacking play in Bengaluru — he scored 99 — where the pitch wasn’t assisting spin as much. In Mumbai, where there was more turn and bounce, the battle was more equal.

It helped that Patel’s left-arm spin, with the ball turning into the left-hander, was a favourable match-up to left-handed Pant, but that was the case for Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar too. When Jadeja attempted to take a leaf out of Pant’s book in the Mumbai fourth innings, targeting the region behind square, he failed to execute the shot. When other Indian batters attempted to hit their way out of trouble as Pant had, they struggled.

That’s again because Pant, unorthodox as he is, has a complete grasp over his own game. He knows when to ring in which weapon. During his second innings 60 in Mumbai, his boundaries were spread out to both sides of the ground. Contrast this with his fourth innings knock of 64; with the degree of difficulty higher, he targeted only the on side for hitting fours. Having forced the Kiwis to spread the field, he would run singles on the off side, against the turn. Until he was there, the opposition were on tenterhooks, the home crowd had hope.

“To be honest, no one knows what goes on in his mind. He decides what he wants to do,” India captain Rohit Sharma had said after the Bengaluru Test. “And that is the kind of freedom we want to give to him because he has produced performances with that mindset.”

Pant’s counter-attacking brilliance against New Zealand is just another addition to his many a maverick effort in a career still young. He can reverse sweep a James Anderson as we know. That’s audacity. But his growth as a batter can be truly seen in his better understanding of percentage cricket.

His versatility across conditions — on bouncy Australian tracks, those with lateral movement in South Africa, against the swinging Dukes ball in England and turners at home — tell us a lot more about Pant than his 2693 runs in 38 Tests do. Who else would advance down the track and hit Nathan Lyon from the rough at Sydney?

After his 2020-21 heroics, it’s time for Australia, again. With the rest of the batters low on confidence, Pant is India’s brightest hope. And you can count on him to do things in his own way.

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