Kolkata: The first round of Duleep Trophy being a fun watch had a lot to do with Rishabh Pant doing Rishabh Pant things — chirping the head off rival batters from behind the stumps, pulling off stunning one-handed catches and sneaking into the rival team huddle (currently feeding the meme fests). Nothing, however, had a more captivating effect than Pant wielding the bat. That a release of pent-up energy was due became apparent when he walked out at Bengaluru in India B’s first innings. But the thing about Pant is that his batting is never defined nor shaped by the outcome.

By taking stance more than a foot outside the crease, he debunked the myth of batters being on the guard after a hiatus from first-class cricket as long as his. Avesh Khan was generous too, serving a full toss first up that Pant drove through covers for a four. Next ball, around the wicket and Pant left it to the keeper. Third ball, he skipped down the crease, went for a wild heave and missed it completely. It was as if Pant had never stopped playing red-ball cricket.

It wasn’t unexpected that Pant was dismissed only 10 balls into his first innings, just as it was expected to see him plunder 61 off 47 balls in his second essay. Limited overs cricket tends to normalise Pant’s batting approach but in a format as exacting as Test cricket, it adds to his allure. Bazball has reinvented Test batting to a great extent, but it’s still mostly traditional shots played more frequently and more fearlessly. With his reverse scoops, no-look clip off the thigh and one-handed six though, Pant adds a different layer of intrigue.

Better for India too because unless Sarfaraz Khan gets a chance in Australia by a quirk of fate, no one from the middle-order can bat as freely as Pant. Heirs apparent were lined up in his near two-year absence, all drawing and failing inevitable comparisons. Ishan Kishan is out of the picture right now. Currently the most technically accomplished wicketkeeper, KS Bharat has yielded meagre batting returns. Dhruv Jurel had a comparatively better batting average (63.33) in a three-Test career so far, but is a work in progress behind the stumps. And while KL Rahul has hit a hundred as designated wicketkeeper (Centurion, 2023), a complicated injury history is bound to make the management cautious about pushing him.

Not that they need to, now that Pant is back and named for the first Test against Bangladesh after spending nearly 20 months away from red-ball cricket following a road accident in December 2022. This being another big year with India aiming to lift the Border Gavaskar Trophy away from home again, there can be no better sight than Pant penned in as ‘keeper-batter.

Former skipper Sourav Ganguly believes it’s going to stay this way for a long time. “I’m not surprised that he’s back in the side, and he will continue to play for India in Tests,” he was quoted as saying. “He will be an all-time great in Tests if he keeps performing like this.”

Two probable reasons why Ganguly is already picking Pant as an all-time great in the making. One is Pant’s ridiculously superb form on overseas tours. In Australia, he has that 189-ball 159* helping India to a crucial draw at Sydney in 2019, but for sheer ingenuity and bravery, there probably can never be another knock as epic as that unbeaten 89 that breached the Gabba in 2021. Secondly, there can be no guarantee when Pant will stop being Pant and become a steadier, scarier prospect. Like at the Oval in 2021, where Pant had crawled to his slowest first-class fifty (off 105 balls) so that the lower order could launch a riposte rallying around him. Then too, India had won.

It only inserts that element of doubt in the opponents’ minds with Pant doing Pant things. Red-ball cricket comes with a fair share of talk over how the innings should be paced, about the value of patience, and batting out time and wearing out the bowlers. As it stands, Pant neither conforms to that school of thought nor has he rejected it. Expect a series of batting tweaks from him in the home season, but don’t be surprised if Pant goes old-fashioned at times. To break Australia in Australia, India need Pant to oil all his gears. And going by the Duleep Trophy, that process has begun in full swing.

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