India were already 308 runs ahead. Bangladesh no longer saw any real point in actively participating in this Test. In a strange way, it made sense. This game was deep in Declare territory. They might as well rest their bowlers for the next game. Or maybe they were worried about the over rate. Be that as it may, under overcast skies, after early morning rain, on a fast-bowling pitch (though there was not as much movement as before), Mehidy Hasan Miraz delivered twice as many overs as any of his teammates in the morning session of the third day. The spacious fields added to the batters’ comfort. They were walking singles.
A Pant century is always full of highlights and this time was no different. There were so many scoop shots and a crowd used to the culture of repeated performances – you have to question yourself a little if you’re from Chennai and have only seen a major film once – really appreciated it. There was also a straight six which he managed only by keeping his bottom hand off the bat. He managed that once in the IPL three years ago, against the Chennai Super Kings in Dubai, and Matthew Hayden in his commentary dispelled the notion that the ball crossing the boundary was a fluke.
“He doesn’t even come close. If he had held his bat with both hands, he wouldn’t have even gotten halfway to the boundary. But he actually manages to stretch the bat through his hands so that he carries the bat in front of him and that’s why he makes the distance to the short side of the court, admittedly, but what a shot!”
Pant’s scoops have the same counter-intuitive quality. He is perfectly content to stay in line with the ball. Other players – like Jos Buttler, for example – struggle to get out of the ball because their own body is the biggest obstacle to them reaching the gap at fine leg. Pant simply bends his upper body away at the last moment and that is obviously more than enough. He has an instinctive understanding of shot mechanics and that knowledge seems to be expanding.
When he scored 39 on the first day of the Chepauk Test, and the conditions were significantly more difficult, Pant thrived by playing the ball with really soft hands. Given his inextricable association with all things fancy (like making a name for himself first as a babysitter and later as a batsman), it’s easy to forget that he possesses that ability too. At the Gabba in 2021, he was content with just one boundary from his first 48 balls. He had a reason for batting like that. A Test match was at stake. There were no limitations in the bigger picture here. He made 30 off 65 because he was thorough. It’s possible that he will outgrow his impulse-driven stroke play phase.
“I told him not to do that,” Gill said. “Because I’m playing with the bat I played the England series with. My bat is actually quite old. And he hit my bat so hard that I told him I’m trying to save my bat. And if he hadn’t hit it in the middle, he would have said, no, let’s do it again. I just said, calm down, brother.”
Those two or three seconds before he raised his bat and Pant realised what he had done may be one of the only known periods when he ever seemed overwhelmed.
