What to make of Rishabh Pant’s 79-ball 70, in a Vijay Hazare trophy game played between Delhi and Gujarat at the Centre of Excellence? Your first thoughts could be it must have been a frenetic innings, comprising audacious shots, one-handed hits, and a few plays and misses. However, the reality was something different.
In conditions where the odd ball stopped on the batter, Pant was prepared to bide his time against the spin trio of Amit Desai, Vishal Jayswal and Ravi Bishnoi. Jayswal, in particular, troubled Delhi’s batters as they slid to 109 for 4.
It wasn’t as if Pant became a stonewaller, as in between he did essay those slog sweeps over midwicket, lofts and even the late cut. Yet, there was a touch of calm countenance associated with the knock.
In the process of trying to up the ante, Pant’s attempt to slog Jayswal across the line turned out to be unsuccessful. Somewhere Pant would feel a tad disappointed that he lost out on a chance to crack hundred.
At a macro-level, this is an important tournament for Pant. Ideally, he would want to occupy one of the slots in India’s ODI side. Although, at the moment, there doesn’t seem to be one, with KL Rahul performing the dual role of wicketkeeping and providing the finishing touches. Just in case Rahul slips up with a run of poor scores, Pant is waiting in the wings. In a nutshell, it tells something about the kind of depth India have in white-ball formats.
Also Read: ‘King Kohli’ once more brightens up CoE
