IND vs ENG Test: 'Rishabh Pant's absence is a 25% swing to England' – Michael Vaughan on India's big setback
India were dealt a severe blow on Day 1 of the fourth Test as wicketkeeper-batsman
Rishabh Pant
retired hurt on 37 after sustaining a painful foot injury, potentially ruling him out for the remainder of the series.
With India now at 264/4 at stumps after the opening day at Old Trafford, the team awaits scan results to determine the extent of the damage, as their campaign hangs in the balance.
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Pant's injury came in dramatic fashion when attempting a reverse sweep off Chris Woakes. UltraEdge confirmed a faint inside edge onto his right boot before it struck his foot. After being taken off in a golf cart, India's innings stalled.
Pant's departure not only removed a key momentum-shifter — he had scored 462 runs in the series at an average of 77 — but also robbed India of their premier wicketkeeper-batter.
05:13
Rishabh Pant injury update: Will he come out to bat on Day 2? More on his swelling, fitness status
Speaking on Cricbuzz, former India wicketkeeper
Dinesh Karthik
described the concern starkly: 'How big a loss is this for the Test, for India and in general, the series as well, if he doesn't come back to play?'
Former England captain Michael Vaughan backed the sentiment, suggesting Pant's absence could significantly tilt the game: 'If Rishabh's going to be out for the match, to play against England with only 10 batters is a massive concern.
I think missing Pant gives England about a 25% advantage in terms of winning this Test match.'
Vaughan went further, calling for a change in policy: 'If he's injured and likely to miss the rest of the Test, why can't we have a substitute? We have concussion subs — why not for a broken foot?'
'He was in a lot of pain': Sai Sudharsan admits Rishabh Pant's absence could hurt India
He also issued a warning on the total India would need to post: 'India will need at least 350, and more likely 400, to put England under pressure here.
Without Pant, that becomes even more difficult.'
Trailing 1–2 overall, India must secure a win at Old Trafford — a ground they've never conquered in nine previous attempts — to keep their series aspirations alive. Pant's looming absence has forced the team to contemplate reworking their strategy.
For real-time updates, scores, and highlights, follow our live coverage of the
India vs England Test match
here.
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The Hindu
11 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Rishabh Pant and the art of conquering pain
For Rishabh Pant, pain had become a way of life for more than 12 months. A constant, if uninvited companion. A grim reminder of what might have been, a reminder too of how lucky he was to have emerged from a life-threatening single-car accident with all his faculties intact. Pant's horrific road accident of 30 December 2022 is too fresh in memory, too raw for everyone even remotely associated with him, to bear detailed repetition. Suffice to say that to be able to play competitive, professional cricket within 16 months of that terrible episode was tribute to his resilience, to his unmatched determination, to his unyielding desire to make the most of a second chance that only the very lucky get. If Pant doesn't quite feel the pressure of a cricket match as much as anyone else, it's not without good reason. To him more than anyone else, Keith Miller's famous comments revolving around pressure in Test cricket will resonate readily. The dashing Australian all-rounder fought in World War II against the Germans, flying night missions over Germany and Occupied France as he targeted Nazi rocket bases. Flight Lieutenant Miller once told Michael Parkinson, the legendary English television presenter, broadcaster, journalist and author, 'Pressure? There's no pressure in Test cricket. Real pressure is when you are flying a Mosquito with a Messerschmitt (a German twin-engine fighter and attack aircraft) up your arse!' Even before his outlook-altering accident, Pant was a free spirit, an unpredictable mass of the unconventional even by the most unorthodox standards. No one quite knew what to expect when he had the cricket bat in his hands. He could dead-bat with felicity, sure, but it was when he put it to more attacking use that he commanded attention. Compelled it. He would sometimes be dismissed doing the most exasperatingly outrageous, just as he would drop jaws with his sheer audacity, with his ability to think out of the box, and to implement that thought process with total disdain for the usual, for reputation, for pedigree. Pant 2.0 is no different. A lot more grateful and thankful for his second coming, so to say, but no less uninhibited or fearless. He certainly is more mature, he picks his battles with greater thought than previously, but he hasn't gone against his natural grain. He hasn't become conservative, careful or circumspect – all on the cricket ground, in front the stumps, lest we should confuse ourselves – because then, he wouldn't be Rishabh Pant, would he? And therefore, he reacts with complete equanimity to both 'Stupid, stupid, stupid' and 'Superb, superb, superb'. He has an unabashed admirer in Sunil Gavaskar, the deliverer of both iconic lines but also completely in awe of the package that Pant is. Twice in this Test series, Pant has overcome the pain barrier with a nonchalance that is uniquely Pant. In the third Test at Lord's, he hurt his left index finger badly on day one, trying to stop a wildly swinging (after it passed the stumps) Jasprit Bumrah delivery that pinged him badly before speeding away for four byes. That was on the first day of the game; it must take something really bad for Pant to shed his wicketkeeping gloves and retreat to the dressing room and cede wicketkeeping responsibilities to Dhruv Jurel, but Pant the batter was back the next day with India on 107 for three in reply to England's 387. Pant didn't just bat, he batted like the Pant the world knows and loves. With chutzpah and authority and positivity and aggression, without a care for the throbbing pain that was exacerbated by every movement of the willow. He charged and smashed, he fell and pulled or swept, he danced like a ballerina, he made even the hard-nosed, implacable MCC members populating the Long Room cluck and wonder at what he was made of. For two and a half hours, he toyed with England's best, helping KL Rahul add 141 until a brainfade moment designed to put Rahul, on 98, back on strike in the last over before lunch on day three, threw England a lifeline and ended the Pant show on 72. Two days later, on the final morning with India needing 135 more for victory, Pant walked out at No. 6 but it was clear that the injury was troubling him even more. He wrung his left hand in discomfort during each of his 12 balls, one of them from Jofra Archer swatted through mid-on as if a pesky fly had got in his eyeline, before Archer had the final say with a peach that knocked his off pole out. That should have been it, really, but as it transpired, that was merely the teaser, the trailer before the main act. A trailer that showcased his gumption and spunk, which expressed itself with far greater magnitude at Old Trafford on Thursday. Pant recovered sufficiently from the finger injury in the week-long break between the third and the fourth Tests to start in Manchester in his designated stumper-batter avatar. Alongside Sai Sudharsan, he built on a decent start on Wednesday's first day of the Test with a stand of 72, archetypal Pant, until suddenly, he decided that it was time to ramp it up. As Chris Woakes bustled in, Pant fancied a reverse sweep. It's a shot has he has pulled off with impunity numerous times, it's also a shot that has precipitated his downfall more than once, but when has that ever stopped him? This time, Pant managed an inside-edge that crashed into the outer part of his right foot, just below the little toe. England missed the edge and burnt a review trying to prise him out, even as Pant was hobbling and wincing and biting his lip in sheer agony. He tried gamely to carry on but couldn't even put the slightest weight on the offending appendage. When the physio peeled off his sock and then his shoe, it was clear why – there was a swelling the size of a ping pong ball, capped by a smattering of blood. Pant's Test match should have ended then and there – at 37, retired hurt. Driven off the field in a golf buggy, Pant struggled into an ambulance and went to a nearby hospital for a scan which confirmed the worst. The next morning, day two, when the team bus trundled into Old Trafford, Pant was nowhere to be seen. Of course, you said. Why would he? Pant wasn't in his hotel room, moping and brooding and cursing his luck. He wasn't sleeping off the aftereffects. He was back in the hospital for a painkilling injection, after which he went to the dressing room for a few warm-up drills. When Shardul Thakur was sixth batter dismissed, he was stunned to see the stocky figure of his admirable mate making the impossibly arduous walk down the steps towards the middle. Thakur waited respectfully, admiringly, inside the field of play, for Pant to enter the ground. He patted him on the head like an older brother passing on his benevolence, then joined his colleagues on the balcony to watch the little fella smash an Archer slower ball over mid-wicket for six and check-drive a cover-drive off Ben Stokes to the boundary to bring up the most astonishing of half-centuries. The warrior Why, Rishabh, you wanted to ask. What were you trying to prove? To whom? Until realisation dawned that he wasn't trying to be a hero. He wasn't attempting what to others might have seemed outlandish. He wasn't seeking to impress anyone. He was just being Rishabh Pant, because this is exactly the kind of thing Rishabh Pant would do, day after day if need be. To bat with an injured index finger is remarkable; to do so with one leg barely available to him, in a manner of speaking – defies logic, beggars belief, stretches the imagination, doesn't it? When he was dismissed, bowled off-stump again by Archer, Pant limped off to a thunderous applause. Stokes, himself the ultimate warrior, recognised and warmly congratulated his kindred spirit. More than 20,000 people rose as one, the Indian balcony could hardly hide its emotions, and Mohammed Siraj reprised the Thakur act of 59 minutes earlier, with another warm pat of the helmet. Pant retreated to the sanctum sanctorum, changed into shorts and practice shirt and started fooling around. Just Pant things, you know. Cricket history is replete with numerous instances of mind over matter, of going above and beyond the call of duty. Followers of Indian cricket will remember Anil Kumble, apparition-like, bowling at the ARC ground in St John's in 2002, his broken jaw wired and held in place by bandages, and snaring Brian Lara leg before. That was scary, surreal, goosebumpy; Kumble bowled because he could, and because he was waiting out the time to board his flight to Bengaluru where he would soon have surgery to fix the broken jaw. What to do with the time? Well, how about 14 overs in unbearable pain? How about the scalp of one of the greatest batters of all time? For 23 years, Kumble has ploughed a lone heroic furrow. There were others before and after him – Rahul Dravid getting up after being floored by a bouncer to make an unbeaten 144 in the same series at the Bourda Oval. V.V.S. Laxman orchestrating two remarkable run-chases within a couple of months in 2010, at the P. Sara Oval in Colombo against Sri Lanka and at the PCA Stadium in Mohali against Australia when Pragyan Ojha managed what even ill-treating selectors hadn't – make him angry. Sachin Tendulkar braving crippling pain in his back to nearly, nearly, take his team to the most famous of victories against Pakistan in Chennai in 1999. But they weren't in the same Kumble league for bravery and/or foolhardiness. Until now. In Pant, the 10 for 74 hero has an equally extraordinarily pig-headed champion. Kumble and Pant, chalk and cheese, an odd couple, tied together by the bond of stretching, nay, smashing, the pain barrier.
Indian Express
11 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Washington Sundar: The new monk, who stood unconquered at Manchester
The celebrations were understated for someone who completed his first Test hundred; and for someone who rarely gets the chance to reach the landmark. A shimmy for a single, short sprint to mid-on, a calm unfastening of the helmet and a wave of the bat with a face as cold as stone. There was no roar, no smile or even a grin of relief on Washington Sundar's face. It was an extension of his batting as well a reflection of his personality, monkishly imperturbable, not prone to excessive outpouring of emotions, in both good and bad times. The only streak of over-excitement in his career was verbal faux pas on the fourth evening of the Lord's Test when he averred that India would wrap up the chase of 192 before first session on the final. It gloriously backfired, to almost the hue of Tim Paine's 'See you in Gabba taunt'. But he was quickly over it and played a defining role in the game. He was India's sharpest bowler in the game, and he was the face of India's defiance on the fifth day. Then he is not a stranger to acts of tenacity. Take some of India's most memorable Test matches in the last four years, he had been there, in the eye of a storm, in the heat and heart of the battle. In Brisbane first innings, on debut, he gritted 62 off 144 balls, laying the foundations of his country's most memorable hour this decade. There are several other priceless but forgotten knocks — 85 not out on a Chennai turner, 96 not out in Motera, the 42 in Birmingham in the first innings. Even the 22 off 29 cameo in Brisbane had its own value. But unless the scorecards are forked out, footages rewatched the contributions don't strike, or the strokes he essayed flash on the mind's eye. Partly, it is down to his demeanour, self-effacing to a fault. He is that boy next door cricketer you bump so frequently in the maidans and streets. The boy who does everything, bat, bowl and field, without making a fuss about it, neither making it look ridiculously simple nor elaborately laborious. He is the name you pause in a scorecard, or ponder and forget. What-a-TON Sundar! 💯 Grit. Determination. Dominance. Held the fort till the very end, a maiden test century to cherish forever! 🙌🏻#ENGvIND 👉 5th TEST | Starts THU, 31st July, 2:30 PM | Streaming on JioHotstar! — Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) July 27, 2025 Unless he is in the middle of winning or saving a game, which he often finds himself in a Test match. It's something of an occupational hazard when batting down the order. In 22 innings, the highest he had ever batted is at No. 5 — in this very innings, necessitated by Rishabh Pant's injury. The most familiar number has been eight (11), closely followed by seven. He has once batted at six and thrice at nine. But No 9 or 5, he remained just the same, as much as unexcited as unfazed. The enormity of the moment did not crush him. He marked his guard with a faint smile that masked whatever nerves that boiled inside his head. He bunted a pair of runs straight away and then offered a blunt broad bat for the next half an hour. He is one of the few Indian batsmen in recent times who has shown the fading art of batting time. He is rarely edgy or jumpy, always behind the ball, sparsely attempting a flashy stroke, even though he first struck acclaim as a T20 gun for hire. Nothing is careless, impetuous or wasted. He has a full array of strokes, but he knows perfectly when, where and how to use them. He judges, and seizes the moments. On Sunday, it came when Ben Stokes started barraging short balls around the 110th over. By then he had faced close to a hundred balls and just to unsettle Stokes and prompt him to a different plan of attack, he got under one nailed a fierce pull over deep square leg for a six. Memories would have rolled back to 2021, when he clumped Pat Cummins for a similar six in the Gabba chase. Like when tall batsmen pull, there was an awkward elegance about it. The next ball was nailed through the same area to defang Stokes. The over before, the England captain had produced a spiteful bouncer at Ravindra Jadeja, who somehow scrambled to safety. A decisive but mini battle was thus won. Soon after, India wiped England's lead and the confidence swelled that they could escape the game without a humiliation. He was largely in control, and when he was not, he ensured that the good balls didn't haunt him. Archer made a ball leap into the splice of his bat in the 92nd over. Liam Dawson made one spit from the rough. England sniffed a moment when they could burst through the resistance of India's last recognised pair. He then thick-edged Dawson after misreading the drift, he wafted thin air when Archer snapped a ball past his stab. He survived the storm, and lived to tell the tale. The knock could be the one that would finally make the audience begin appreciating the traits that make him a valuable member of the eleven. He is a deluxe cricketer most teams would covet. A proper Test batsman and off-spinner, the fight and grit masked beneath his boy-next-door charms.
News18
11 minutes ago
- News18
Rishabh Pant Ruled Out Of India-England Test Series, Confirms Head Coach Gambhir
Last Updated: Rishabh Pant has been officially ruled out of the India-England Test series, head coach Gautam Gambhir confirmed after the Manchester Test. Head coach Gautam Gambhir confirmed on Sunday (July 27) that wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant has been ruled out of the remainder of the India-England Test series. Pant suffered a metatarsal fracture after being hit on the foot by a Chris Woakes yorker while batting on the first day of the fourth Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy Test. He was taken to the hospital and was reportedly advised six weeks of rest, though he came out to bat on the second day and scored 16 runs too. The Test ended in a draw, thanks to valiant centuries from Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, who helped India overcome the 311-run first innings lead, forcing the hosts to accept a draw an hour before Stumps on Day 5. 'Rishabh is already out of the series," Gambhir said in the post-match press conference. 'I want to say that the character and the foundation of this team will be built on something that Rishabh Pant did for the team and for the country as well. Any amount of praise is not enough for him, especially batting with a broken foot. Not many people have done that in the past, and he put his hand up, and that is why I say any amount of praise, I can sit here and talk about this for hours and hours. I think the generations to come forward will talk about this, and the generations coming forward should talk about it," he added. First Published: July 28, 2025, 00:00 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
