Shamik Chakrabarty in Chennai
He fell prey to a soft dismissal in the first innings. In the second, Rishabh Pant made sure he didn’t repeat his mistakes. The wicketkeeper-batter has returned to the Test fold after a gap of 629 days. He marked it with his sixth Test hundred.
About 10 minutes after lunch, as the left-hander pushed Shakib Al Hasan wide of long-off for a couple, he raised his bat and went into Shubman Gill’s embrace. The seam movement had died down on the Chepauk pitch, there was no scoreboard pressure and the Bangladesh bowling didn’t ask tough questions.
Still, this is a significant hundred, especially with an eye to the future. In a long Test season, when India will play 10 matches, including five in Australia in the winter, it was imperative from the team’s point of view that Pant got into the red-ball groove quickly. It was never easy to return to the longer format after almost two years and hit the ground running. But Pant is a special player, and he will be central to his team’s chances on tougher assignments (read, Australia).
For a major part of his innings, Pant was subdued. He respected good deliveries and didn’t try to manufacture shots. Closer to lunch on Day 3, he upped the ante. A ramp for a six off Hasan Mahmud was audacious.
A few deliveries later, he lived a charmed life, as Najmul Hossain Shanto dropped a sitter off Shakib. Pant was on 72 then. He celebrated it by taking back-to-back fours in Shakib’s next over. Then, he went down the track against the left-arm spinner to hit a six followed by a four to the long leg boundary. He, along with Gill, batted Bangladesh out of the game.
In the grand scheme of things, this innings will give Pant a lot of confidence. He is back, in style.