Boria Majumdar in Birmingham
Rishabh Pant was the star for India in the first Test at Headingley. Hundreds in both innings of a Test match on English soil is a very rare achievement. No Indian keeper has been there and chances are it won’t happen again very soon. Add keeping wickets for 182 overs and you understand the magnitude of his achievement. When you add the medical miracle he has been through a year earlier, you realise why he is a generational talent.
Rishabh has been someone I have always had time for. Over the years I have seen him evolve as a very good red-ball player, perhaps one of the best India currently have. In all of this, his humility has stayed the same. He is one of the warmest cricketers going around and is an extremely good human being. Having had a close shave with death, he knows how fickle life can be and has emerged a better person in the process.
Yesterday, while all of his teammates had gone out to do their batting and bowling drills at the nets area, Rishabh was busy practicing with tennis balls around the centre wicket. With tennis balls hit at him in full force, the idea was to stay as low as possible and take the catches. He also did an extensive catching drill with the Dukes ball, which lasted for close to 20 minutes.
When he was finally done with keeping, he saw me do my show from the stands and stopped to have a word. We gave each other a hug and had a brief chat. I congratulated him for his twin tons and his statement left an impression, “Match nahi jeet paye. Agar woh nahi hota hai toh hundreds ka importance kam ho jata hai. Match jitna hai hume. Is Test mein poori koshish rahegi ki hum 1-1 ka barabari kar paye, ” he said.
This was Rishabh the Indian team vice-captain speaking. He isn’t satisfied with the individual milestones and all that matters to him is how the collective fares. “Hum kar sakte hain. Aur hamara koshish yahi rahega ki hum yeh match jite,” he made a winning vow for the second Test.
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For a second, I could see his face change. The smile had given way to resolve. Deep down, he wants it. And wants it bad. Rishabh Pant, the maverick, has always had a method to his madness. In the first Test, he was heard time and again admonishing himself for the way he was batting. He knows how big this series is and also knows that as vice-captain, he has a major role to play. He has to step up and fill the big boots of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, and make sure that India aren’t pushovers here in England.
“Aap poora tour ho kya,” he asked me. When I said I will be going back after Lord’s but the RevSportz team will be here, he commended me for the work RevSportz is doing and wished us all the best.
And just before he left to get into the nets, he said it one more time, “Hum poora koshish karenge.”
That’s what it is about. The hunger and the desire. It is about who wants it more. Rishabh clearly does.
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