He drove for an hour and knocked on my door at 3:30 AM to apologize: Rishabh Pant's childhood coach recalls touching incident

Rishabh Pant's childhood coach Tarak Sinha recently narrated a 'touching' yet 'disturbing' anecdote about the young wicketkeeper-batsman. In testimony to Pant's values, Sinha recalled how he once drove an hour to apologize to him at 3:30 AM because he couldn't see him upset.

Sinha has played an integral role in Rishabh Pant's meteoric rise in international cricket. As the head coach of Delhi's iconic club Sonnet, where Pant spent most of his formative years, Sinha has closely observed his rise as a player.

The coaching tenure involved some 'harsh' talks to the impressionable youngster. Sinha said it was one such berating during a net session at Sonnet that brought Rishabh Pant to his door late at night.

"Once I got upset with him during one of the net sessions at my club Sonnet which is in South Delhi. He couldn’t sleep for the whole night and knocked on my door around 3:30 am! I live in Vaishali (National Capital Region) and which is almost an hour’s drive where he was staying in Delhi. I was like at this time? Why? He said that he wanted to apologise because he could never see me being upset. That was touching as well as disturbing since he had to make that journey post-midnight. In fact, my family was so upset with me that I was harsh on the kid," Sinha told Cricketnext.com.

The way Rishabh Pant plays Test Cricket is just phenomenal to watch.!He just enjoys his time out in the middle.!pic.twitter.com/Cy5SCwPVhV

— Deep Point (@ComeonPant) May 29, 2021

Rishabh Pant has now played over 70 international games for India, scoring just under 2400 runs across formats. The 23-year-old southpaw has already helped India win two historic series - against Australia in 2020 and England in 2021.

"Still a long way to go before Rishabh Pant can be seen as India captaincy material" - Tarak Sinha

Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant's coming of age has meant that comparisons with legendary Indian skipper MS Dhoni have only increased in intensity. Moreover, Pant impressively led the Delhi Capitals to the top of the table by the time the IPL was suspended, prompting some grand predictions from former cricketers.

However, Sinha feels it's still 'too early' to take that call because Rishabh Pant needs to mature more before taking up the massive responsibility.

"It’s little too early to say that. Pant has to establish himself first more as a player. If you look at the iconic players like Dhoni and Virat Kohli, they had to do a lot before they got the captaincy. Similarly, Pant needs to grow as a player and then in future selectors can think about those things. He has done reasonably well for Delhi Capitals in IPL this year and has led Delhi Ranji team to final as well in the past. Not that he is intimidated by additional responsibility but as of now he is a kid and, still a long way to go before he can be seen as India captaincy material," added Sinha.

Rishabh Pant is currently in Mumbai, preparing for the upcoming tour of England. It goes without saying that he'll be instrumental to India's chances in the World Test Championship Final and the five Tests against Joe Root's team.