Rishabh Pant deals England a dose of their own medicine

July 1, 2022. Rishabh Pant strides out at Edgbaston with India staring down the barrel and on the verge of another top-order capitulation. This time, he is batting at No. 5, meaning that he has slightly more elbow-room but he probably has more responsibility on his shoulders.

The clouds have rolled in, too. Matthew Potts has his tail up and James Anderson has just smelt blood. The ball has started hooping around corners. Rahul Dravid, who has already experienced a few batting collapses as head coach, also wears a worried look.

As soon as Pant enters this cauldron of pressure, there is a sense of expectation. No one really knows what he has up his sleeve. Almost everyone at the ground and at home, though, understands that Pant is not going to die wondering.

There is anticipation. The wicket-keeper could launch a monumental counter-attack and bulldoze India to safety. He could even rattle the bowlers to an extent that they begin doing things that they ordinarily wouldn’t.

But, as is the case with Pant, there is also trepidation. What if he steps down the track to Stuart Broad and slices his lofted shot straight to mid-off? What if he tries to end Jack Leach’s career and gets stumped by Sam Billings?

The only certainty, therefore, is that something is going to happen. It could be to India’s detriment, or it could be that the visitors seize the moment and consign England to their first Test defeat this summer.

And then, it happens.

It doesn’t materialize instantly. It’s not like the much-publicised 'BazBall' where Pant, off the first ball he faces, plants his front foot down the track, thumps James Anderson over his head. Or, he attempts a cheeky reverse sweep when Anderson tries to nip the ball away in the channel.

There’s something different to it, although it is also eerily similar. When Pant comes out of his bunker and bludgeons a straight drive past Anderson, it has all the makings of one of those Jonny Bairstow blitzkriegs. But because Pant has given himself time – a process that has previously fetched him rewards, his percentages improve dramatically.

This is, if anything, the 'DravBall' Pant is trying to profess and of course, preach.

All that jargon aside, it is important to understand how Pant almost dealt England a dose of their own medicine. The first 14 balls he faced, he scored 8 runs. Apart from a charge down the track to Anderson, there was nothing out of the ordinary during that passage.

But when Shreyas Iyer departed, having been outwitted by Anderson’s pace, Pant felt it was vital that that notion was directly challenged. Anderson, for context, does not have the pace he once possessed. Still, he did enough to ruffle Shreyas’ feathers and force him to glove a back of a length delivery through to his Kolkata Knight Riders teammate Billings.

So, it was only fitting that Pant advanced down the track to Anderson and disdainfully dispatched him past mid-off for four – like he would usually do to a spinner. It was almost as if he was telling everyone that there weren’t any demons in the surface and that the veteran could easily be attacked.

On most days, the wicketkeeper might’ve gotten carried away and might’ve wanted to pile further misery on England’s best bowler. That, though, does not happen in the 'DravBall' version of Pant.

He waited till the 48th over to try something funky against Anderson. It was, as you might’ve guessed by now, an attempted reverse sweep. A ball later, he tried to slog Anderson to Villa Park. He didn’t reap adequate rewards on both occasions but with him established at the crease, it was a sign that he wanted to dominate.

Prior to that, he had taken a liking to Leach and Potts. Whenever they came on to bowl, he tried to maximise the scoring opportunities that presented themselves. Leach, in particular, has thrived under Stokes and in the trust the latter has shown in him.

On Friday, it wasn’t much different, considering Leach rarely bowled with more than two sweepers out on the leg-side fence. Pant, though, doesn’t really care about fielders on the fence. If it lands in his arc, he is going to try to hit you out of the park. He succeeded once, and on two other instances, he fetched himself boundaries. But the intent was clear. It was clear from the moment Leach was introduced into the attack.

And once he crossed fifty, he flexed his muscles like very few people can. Leach, as you would expect, bore the brunt of it. He got smacked all over the park and he would’ve been forgiven to think he had been teleported back to early 2021 and into the mix in Ahmedabad and Chennai.

Rishabh Pant sparkled on his way to 146

Pant ended the day with 146 to his name. A major chunk of those runs came against Leach and Potts. But the more impressive bit was how he ground it out against Anderson and Broad. There were a couple of audacious strokes when Anderson was bowling but it was largely a case of Pant biding his time and then cashing in on what he felt were favourable match-ups.

This, by the way, is something the Indian cricket team have regularly done under Dravid. When Sri Lanka toured India and played a pink-ball Test at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, the ball was turning square. India, though, didn’t back down. They took the game to Sri Lanka and ensured that their spinners couldn’t get into a rhythm.

One of the wicketkeeper’s finest hours, which came at Cape Town earlier in the year, saw him pick and choose his moments to attack – a process that ultimately led to a Test ton and nearly salvaged a seemingly irredeemable situation. A lot of credit, thus, must also be given to Dravid for how he has made people believe that attack can, at times, be the best form of defence, especially when the moment is there to be seized.

On Friday, the contributions of Ravindra Jadeja and Shreyas must not be written off either. Jadeja stitched a massive partnership with the Delhi Capitals skipper but it was arguably Shreyas who set the tone with his breezy 15-run knock. It wasn’t enough to haul India out of trouble but was probably enough to tell Pant and those clad in the England white that India’s version of 'BazBall', or more precisely, the 'DravBall', understood how to fight fire with fire.

When Pant strode out to bat, almost everyone knew something was going to happen – for better or for worse. What many didn’t know was that he would deal England a dose of their own medicine, while also advertising that his and India’s new brand of batting deserved their own jargon.

His knock, which might go down as the best innings he has ever played, had everything. It had caution. It had aggression. It had ‘why are you doing this, Rishabh’ moments. It also had plenty of ‘oh my, this boy is really special’ shrieks of joy. It was perhaps an essay that would’ve made Brendon McCullum nod his head in appreciation too. And it certainly was an innings that made Dravid clench his fist, raise his arms and show as much emotion as he has done in recent times.

Anyone who can transform a pensive-looking Dravid into a person displaying raw jubilation, deserves credit. Pant has done that twice this year already. On this evidence, you feel it won’t be long before that transpires again, either.