Will Rishabh Pant surpass Adam Gilchrist as best keeper-batsman in history?

The Age

7 days ago

For all the temptation to berate Pant's judgement, there is logic to his approach.
Essentially, Pant has little faith in his defence at the start of his innings. Rather than allowing himself to poke uncertainly at the ball and still risk getting out, he prefers to accept the dangers of attacking, but knowing that this can bring a flurry of early boundaries.
Such early adventure also encourages teams to reposition fielders from close-in to the ropes. On both 31 and 45, Pant edged Josh Tongue to the slips, into a gap that would not have been vacant for less audacious batsmen.
So there is a rationale to Pant's essential approach – though his self-admonishing on the fourth morning at Headingley showed that his initial aggression was too extreme, even for him.
The wild strand to the start of Pant's innings obscured that he is among the most extraordinary Test batsmen – let alone wicketkeeper-batsmen – of this age.
If his more restrained approach after the early jitters never exuded the clinical calm of KL Rahul, that is not the point of Pant. He continued to use his feet against seamers, nullifying lateral movement while crashing Tongue through the covers.
Two sixes in three balls launched over long-on off Shoaib Bashir showed Pant's power. There was also ample evidence of his easily overlooked finesse. When he was on 91, Ben Stokes packed the off side. With finesse and force, Pant still bisected the two cover fielders.
At Headingley, the presumption was that Pant would seek to reach his century with a six, just as he had in the first innings.
But, within a single blow of reaching twin centuries, Pant surprised the crowd almost as much as in the morning: he slowed down.
As he repeatedly left deliveries from Bashir, and defended forward with ostentatious care, Pant exuded the air of a man playing at being responsible, like a reformed naughty schoolboy on his first day as a prefect.
Twenty-one balls after reaching 95, Pant was still on 99. Then, with a cut off Bashir for a single, he had his moment of history. This time, there was no somersault. Just a beaming smile and a glance to the heavens.
In 2586 Tests, just one man – Zimbabwe's Andy Flower – had ever scored twin centuries in a match while also keeping wicket. Now, Pant is the second member of this club.
He is rapidly compiling a record fit to compare to any wicketkeeper in Test history. Had he converted all his 90s into centuries, Pant would have a staggering 15 centuries in 44 Tests.
His eight hundreds include four in just 10 Tests in England; Rahul Dravid is the only Indian to score more here. For all the scrutiny about Pant's early method against pace bowling, he is the only wicketkeeper in history to score centuries away in Australia, England and South Africa.
The upshot is that Pant is swiftly mounting a formidable case to challenge Adam Gilchrist for the tag of greatest keeper-batsman of all time. While Pant averages three runs fewer than Gilchrist – 44.4, compared to 47.6 – he has done so in a far worse era for batsmen worldwide.
Pant's feats are further elevated by his position in the order: No 5, two places higher than Gilchrist normally batted.
In 19 Tests at third drop, Pant now averages 59.7 while scoring at a strike rate of 82. If the notion of responsibility bringing the best out of him was not backed up by Pant's frenzied start, batting at five gives him full scope to shape an innings.
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Pant has achieved all this while the apparent sense of imminent peril in his batting remains. To change this would be to change the essence of Pant. Even when he plays with a straight bat, he is among the most intoxicating sights that Test cricket has ever seen.