If you look through the videos of Rishabh Pant’s practise that the BCCI social media account posts, all you will see are balls flying off his bat. The anonymity of the regular training sessions obscures the fact that his game is centred around a good defensive technique.
As he prepared for the Asia Cup, Pant said with a sheepish grin, “I have gotten used to the thought that there will be severe criticism even if I reach a hundred in one innings and go out cheaply in the next one. He is conscious that wherever he goes, his reputation as a more brazen than carefree cricket player precedes him.
Nobody has faced as much backlash in Indian cricket as he has. Every compliment in the glut of analysis comes with a caveat about how he needs to control himself. Yet in at least two formats, he has shown to be India’s most reliable batter.
To identify instances in which bowlers were able to get past his defence, one would have to look pretty hard in his archives. His firings have always resulted in physical violence.
