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Time of India
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
IND vs ENG: Rishabh undefined! How Pant's world went from chaos to order
For five years, 's display picture on Whatsapp was a quote which read, 'Everyone works to be seen. I work to disappear.' It was put up when the world went into lockdown during the pandemic and Pant found himself sitting at home, unsure about his future in the Indian team. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now He would subsequently turn things around with two magical knocks in Sydney and Brisbane in 2020-21. Cut to March, 2025. Pant decided to uninstall Whatsapp and keep his mobile phone switched off unless he needed to reach out. It was only a tiny part of the whole process to remove the clutter from his mind after going through the most chaotic season in his cricket career. Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW! As he did the now-viral front-flip celebration after scoring a century in the first innings of the Headingley Test last week — just like he did upon reaching the milestone in his last IPL game this year — Pant would have been satisfied at having turned things around. Pant's last three innings across formats have all been centuries, a performance that his most ardent fan would have struggled to imagine 45 days ago. On paper, coming back to form looks like a simple process, but people close to him say those were the longest 45 days Pant has endured as a cricketer. Devender Sharma, his childhood coach at Sonnet Club in Delhi, says Pant realised things were getting out of hand after getting out in a flippant manner in the MCG Test, a dismissal now famous for Sunil Gavaskar describing it as 'stupid, stupid, stupid'. IND vs ENG Tests: New Spin Twist for Team India? In the following Test, Pant decided to knuckle down, taking blows on his body while scoring 40 runs in the first innings on a spicy Sydney pitch before reverting to his instincts to score 61 off 33. Yet, at that moment, nobody could tell which Pant was the real one. Having subsequently lost his place in the ODI XI and enduring a wretched run in the IPL, Pant asserted in an exclusive interview to TOI that he was practicing so hard in the nets that he had developed blisters on his palms. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now On the sidelines of the interview, he quietly said, 'I have spoken to a lot of experts. The more I think, the more this phase will keep engulfing me.' He took a decision to isolate himself from all the criticism and noise. Soham Desai, Team India's strength and conditioning coach till before the England tour, said Pant put himself through a punishing routine when he was benched from the XI during the Champions Trophy. Arshdeep vs Morkel: WWE at the Nets! | Team India's Lighter Moment in Birmingham 'He did the most intense sessions, day in and day out. He dragged me into the gym whenever he was free. He didn't care about fatigue or workload programmes. All he said was he needed to keep working on himself. On the day of the final, he came to me with some kind of guilt in his mind and asked if he could take the day off. I said it was high time that he did,' Desai told TOI. 'Pant has so much in reserve that he will be fine for at least a year without having to do anything extraordinary. That's why you see him moving around so well despite scoring two hundreds and keeping wickets for so long in the Headingley Test,' Desai added. In spite of the punishing training, results eluded him. The lightbulb moment happened when he reached out to Devender Sharma a couple of days before the enforced break in the IPL due to cross-border tensions with Pakistan. Jasprit Bumrah Unleashes Heat in the Nets | IND vs ENG 2nd Test Prep 'When he called me, he kept saying that he was training very hard. I had seen his practice videos put up by Lucknow Super Giants on social media. I told him it didn't seem like he was working on his defence. He has an outstanding defence. I told him to play close to his body and trust his technique to middle the ball more often,' Devender told TOI. The conversation went on for a couple of hours. 'The idea wasn't to discourage him from playing aggressive cricket, which comes naturally to him. The discussion was to reinstill the belief that he could score quickly and score big even by looking to hit in front of the wicket. That's what he has done for most of his career,' Devender said. Following the conversation, Pant confessed he felt good about his batting for the first time in months when he smacked Kagiso Rabada over long off and flicked him over square-leg for twin sixes. He knew he was back in the game. It was, therefore, no surprise that after one of his failed ramp shots at Headingley, Pant was caught on the stump mic chiding himself. 'There is no need to play this shot. You can still get runs hitting in front of the wicket,' he was heard muttering to himself. Every phase in Pant's career has been a fascinating story. This one is no different. He is clearly India's most consistent and prolific Test batter in the last half a decade. Yet, he always leaves you wanting more. He has managed to revive his own batting but the real job starts now. It needs to be seen if he can still put his head down and carry the mantle of being the most established Test batter in the lineup. In England, Team India needs him more than ever.
The Hindu
06-05-2025
- Sport
- The Hindu
Badoni — a Super Giant in Lucknow's middle-order
Behind the trio of Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram in the list of Lucknow Super Giants' highest run-getters in this year's IPL is a diminutive Indian batter who belongs to Delhi. Someone who honed his skills at the prestigious Sonnet Club in the national capital, and has his family's roots in Uttarakhand. Rishabh Pant, of course, fits this description. But in a season where the LSG skipper has been severely below-par with the bat, the man who has taken the mantle of providing heft to LSG's middle-order is Ayush Badoni. With 326 runs in 10 innings at an average of 36.22 and a strike rate of 150.23, the 25-year-old from Delhi is enjoying his best IPL season till date. If he has somewhat slipped under the radar despite his creditable returns, it is perhaps because of the rut of losses that LSG has had to encounter of late. Having suffered defeats in each of its last three games, the franchise faces an uphill battle in its bid to sneak into the playoffs with three matches remaining. LSG's previous game against Punjab Kings at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala, where the jagged peaks of the Dhauladhar range provide a beautiful backdrop, was a classic example of Badoni's brilliance being shrouded by the despair of defeat. By the time he came in to bat at No. 5, the visiting team was teetering at 27 for three in 4.2 overs in a steep chase of 237 with its three in-form overseas batters all back in the dugout. The sense of doom and gloom escalated on the back of Pant and David Miller falling for 18 and 11, respectively, inside the first ten overs. At 73 for five, with the Super Giants needing another 164 runs from 61 balls at a required rate north of 16 runs per over, a victory for PBKS had become a foregone conclusion. But Badoni wasn't willing to resign himself to the outcome. He stitched together a fighting stand of 81 runs off just 41 balls with Abdul Samad for the sixth wicket, and went on to make a career-best score of 74 off 40 balls. It was only in the final over that Badoni departed after miscuing a reverse hit off a low full toss by Yuzvendra Chahal to Arshdeep Singh at short third. By then, Badoni had more than done his bit in helping LSG reach 199 for seven and bridging the margin of defeat to 37 runs. If the battle for the playoffs boils down to net run rate, this may prove to be significant after all. Packing a punch With swagger and self-belief complementing his stroke-making ability, Badoni largely conforms to the stereotype of cricketers from Delhi. Despite the dire situation in Dharamsala, then, the right-hander allowed his fearless streak to shine through by unfurling a range of eye-catching shots. The best of the lot was arguably the first of his five sixes on the night. Azmatullah Omarzai, the Afghan pacer, had done little wrong, landing the ball just short of a good length outside off-stump. In response, Badoni, with his feet rooted to the crease after a minor back-and-across trigger movement, simply stood on top of the bounce and flat-batted it over the long-off fence. To a similar delivery from the same bowler two overs later, Badoni explored another part of the outfield. With the fine-leg fielder taking a more squarish position than usual, he sensed a relatively low-risk opportunity for a boundary in that area, and yielded the desired result by pulling out the paddle scoop. Against Vijaykumar Vyshak, too, he was able to exploit that region with another of those cheeky scoops. He peppered the extra-cover boundary just as frequently, with a couple of sumptuous inside-out shots off Vyshak launched into the night sky for maximums. In the end, it only delayed the inevitable, but Badoni had reasons to be pleased with his own output. 'When Samad and I were batting, I was just thinking about a way to make the team win. Whenever LSG is in a tough situation, I like handling the pressure and enjoy playing in those moments,' he said at the post-match press conference. Pressure? Not for Badoni 😮💨 — Lucknow Super Giants (@LucknowIPL) May 5, 2025 Inputs from coach Langer Badoni has come a long way since his maiden IPL season in 2022. Not even a regular for Delhi in domestic cricket back then, it was primarily as a late-overs dasher that he initially made his mark for LSG. With Gautam Gambhir, then LSG mentor and very much cognizant of Delhi cricket's haphazard ways, backing Badoni to exhibit his natural game at No. 6, he responded with a 41-ball 54 in his very first outing versus Gujarat Titans. While he also had a few cracks in the top-order across his first three seasons, he was predominantly tasked with optimising the slog overs at No. 6 and 7. It meant that Badoni never faced more than 200 deliveries in those editions, and his average languished in the 20s. Yet, when the time came for LSG to announce its retention list ahead of the mega auction for 2025, it forked out ₹4 crore to ensure that Badoni continues donning its dark blue jersey. It was an emphatic show of faith in the youngster even as Gambhir, who is known to have unyielding trust in the players he likes, moved on from the franchise after the 2023 campaign. Badoni seems to enjoy a fruitful relationship with current LSG head coach Justin Langer as well. While interacting with the media after hitting a double century in his first match as Delhi captain in the Ranji Trophy last November, he was forthcoming on the lessons gleaned from attending a training camp with the former Aussie opener in Perth in 2023. 'The wickets in Perth are very different to what we have in India. They were bouncy surfaces. Playing there gave me good exposure. Langer taught me a lot about when to show my aggression and when to control it while batting. He also changed a few things in my batting grip. Those things are helping a lot,' Badoni informed. 'Langer has kept things clear. He has generally encouraged me to play my attacking game.' Badoni's growth also seems to have been propelled by getting to captain Delhi in the previous domestic season. Handed the reins of the team after the first four matches of the Ranji competition, Badoni immediately stepped up with an unbeaten 205 against Jharkhand, and showed that he can handle the extra responsibility without letting runs from his willow dry up. Even when Pant and Virat Kohli joined the team for one-off appearances in January, they were happy to let Badoni steer the ship as skipper. Since this year's IPL began on March 22, the fact that he has had only two single-digit scores in 10 innings points to his greater productivity. He is now clearly an integral member of this batting unit, but if he is to take the next step in his evolution, he will have to start ensuring that more of his contributions count towards victories. For that, a few more runs from the pedigreed lot of Marsh, Markram, Pooran and Pant will certainly help.
