Posted by Here’s a thing we noticed about Rishabh Pant. He’s terrible in adverts. Now here’s another thing we noticed about Rishabh Pant.
In 2018, Pant made 114 in the fifth and final Test at the Oval.
In 2019, he made 159 not out in the fourth and final Test at the SCG.
At the start of the year, he made a match-winning final innings 89 not out in the fourth and final Test at the Gabba. (Here’s a bit more about that match.)
Today, he hit 101 in the fourth and final Test in Ahmedabad.
You see what they have in common?
Another common feature of these innings is that Pant goes about his business with more glee than Mr Radison. (What the hell are ‘regionals’?)
Here he is reverse-scooping Jimmy Anderson, shortly after England took the new ball.
Even Jimmy enjoyed this one, reacting to it with this rather artful downturned-mouth-which-is-actually-a-wry-smile expression.
Quite the face, that one. We didn’t realise it was actually possible to shape your mouth like Beaker from the Muppets and also be smiling, but apparently it is.
Underlining how fun that shot was, Jimmy then looked entirely nonplussed when Pant slapped him straight to Joe Root at midwicket.
What we’re saying here is this. If you enjoy Rishabh Pant’s batting, you enjoy fun. And if you enjoy fun, you must surely be keen to see more four- and five-Test series because that means seeing more of Rishabh Pant at his best.
Those crappy two-Test series are like eating your starter before getting kicked out of the restaurant. Rishabh Pant knows this and that’s why he keeps saving his best for last.
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Bowling fitness for a modern Test series
The whole test series could be summarised with puntastic wicketkeeper headlines:
Pants On Fire
c/w
That’s All Foakes
Good work Ged, maybe we could Russell up some more wicketkeeping puns?
I’m sure I Dhoni-d to ask twice as the commenters who Read this website could easily Engineer some More without much Prior notice, something about these articles clearly helps to Foster a particular sense of humour.
I’m scratching my Hegg, I’ve got my Haddin my hands, Knott got a Kalu.
I doubt my puns would cut the Mustard, but I could Taylor a few stories which would have you Rollings in the aisles.
I’m looking forward to New Zealand vs India in the WTC final now.
As for England, they haven’t really got much time to Learn The Lessons and Take The Positives, as they’ve got another 1,094 games of cricket to play this year (or thereabouts), so they’ll have to Bounce Back and Go Again.
They could still Hit The Ground Running as a Unit.
Pant’s stay at the crease was not brief
And you don’t see him, ever, bowling a back foot no ball.
The stats you included KC led me to look up how often India play Australia. Six full series in the last ten years. All of four matches.
I imagine but can’t be bothered looking up that it’s similar v England.
So he should be ok against these opponents but will struggle against “lesser” teams where they don’t play a full series. He’ll be hopeless against Afghanistan or Zimbabwe.