Pant’s love for the audacious fails the simple test

Melbourne: What you love about Rishabh Pant is also what you hate about him. How often has one watched the sudden, inappropriate end of a knock and wondered: what the hell was he thinking?

It was a day for India to play the smart game. They had started Saturday on 164/5 with Pant on six and Ravindra Jadeja on four, and were well behind the game. So, a good partnership should’ve been the first thing on the team’s wishlist. And for a while, both batters seemed to realise that.

According to CricViz’s PitchViz model, which uses ball-tracking data to assess the pitch/general conditions, it was the best day for batting in the series. The ball wasn’t doing much off the pitch or in the air and Pant was happy to knock it around.

Maybe the initial edges through the slips early in the day tempered his attacking instincts a bit, but only just. The first four of the day was an edge through the vacant third slip area.

Then, eight balls later, he was at it again. Down the pitch to Pat Cummins and smashed it over wide mid-on. Nine balls later, Scott Boland dropped one short and it was pulled powerfully through square leg.

So far, so good. Typical Pant and nothing wrong with a bit of aggression. But one could see that he wanted to shift a gear. A run-out opportunity with Pant on 23 was perhaps a sign of that -- the left-hander took off, but Jadeja turned him down. He had to stop midway and turn around. A direct hit would have got him though.

But he ignored the warning signs. Does he even see them?

It started with him pulling very late out of a Boland delivery. Jadeja had done something similar in Boland’s previous over and this time umpire Joel Wilson walked over to the batter and had a word.

Pant, however, had an itch he needed to scratch. He decided to go for a daring ramp-scoop; daring because Australia had positioned two fielders in the deep for precisely that shot. Luckily, he didn’t connect and took a blow to the body. It hurt and he lay on his back, sucking in the air. A moment to himself; a moment to evaluate the shot he had just played?

Nope. Come the next ball, he was ready to play the same shot again. This time, however, he got a leading edge to Nathan Lyon at a very fine deep third man. Boland’s decision to go from over to around the wicket after the first attempted scoop changed the angle and that might have made the difference.

Why was Pant so intent on that shot given Australia had stationed three fielders out for it? The shot isn’t the issue; it is his go-to shot and the one he plays regularly. The situation of the game was. To stay in the series, India needed to bat for at least half a day. The stakes, needless to say, were high.

And while the same old “this is his natural game” arguments persist, there is something to be said about his game awareness. That’s what Rohit and the team management have been talking to Pant about but they clearly haven’t managed to get through to him.

Former India Test opener Sunil Gavaskar, who was calling the game for ABC Grandstand, was livid.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” he began as he intended to go on. “You’ve got two fielders there and you still go for that. You missed the previous shot, and look where you’ve been caught.

“That is throwing away your wicket. You cannot say that’s your natural game. I’m sorry, that is not your natural game. That is a stupid shot. That is letting your team down badly. You have to understand the situation as well.”

Former Australia batter Michael Hussey was more forgiving on the Fox Cricket broadcast, saying “you’ve got to take the good with the bad” when it comes to players like Pant.

“It’s a hard one though isn’t it because that’s the way he likes to play; he likes to play these crazy shots and if you start putting too much doubt in his mind then it might just confuse him more,” he said. “It is a poor shot, don’t get me wrong.”

Hussey added: “But you don’t want to put doubt in his mind, he’s at his best when he’s clear and free and playing his natural way. I’d be disappointed with the shot, I’m sure he’d be disappointed with the shot, but I don’t want him to change the way he plays.”

And on the whole, many in India will also not be too harsh because Nitish Reddy and Washington Sundar saved the day with a wonderful partnership. But, as it is with so many things Pant, this really was a question of what could’ve been.