In his first hit out in the national blues since November 2022, Rishabh Pant sparkled like he had never before in T20Is for India. Albeit a warm-up outing against a depleted Bangladesh attack, Pant looked in free-flowing touch, even unfurling a range of his ramps and scoops in sunny New York.
Feeding on T20 cricket’s unique skill sets and terminologies, the local baseball-loving Americans could soon come across the one-handed swat off Pant’s willow more often during India’s Group A fixtures in New York and Florida. While he nailed a one-handed six over long-on on Saturday, Pant’s trademark shot has seen wavering results since his comeback IPL 2024 season.
The chances are reasonably high for such an occurrence, for one in every 14 deliveries that Pant played during the IPL ended up as either a one-hander or the bat falling completely off his grasp.
For the keen US enthusiasts who may take their curiosity online to understand the commonness of this ‘one-handed’ shot in cricket, one awaits a sea of Pant’s pictures from different angles employing the shot. Pant in Edgbaston, Pant in Delhi, in Ranchi, Dubai, and Kolkata – there are elaborate compilations of the left-hander’s slick shot in different jerseys and formats across continents and conditions.
The distinct bottom hand (left for Pant) rests above where a regulation top hand usually occurs. At a glance, it would strike a newbie that the entire power is generated from the bottom hand, with the freed-up top hand lending direction and distinctiveness.
Often launched in complete precipitance against attacks in Test cricket, Pant relished the highs from the stroke until mid-2022, before the chinks in the shotmaking began to crop up.
dismissed while pulling vs SRH; Slogs vs LSG (Screengrabs)
Coupled with his ‘falling’ sweep/scoop shots to the on-side, where he attempts a deliberate shuffle across the line of the stumps and somehow drags the ball behind the square of the wicket, the one-hander was found wanting. Even during Saturday’s knock, 46 of Pant’s 53 runs against Bangladesh were made through the on-side, underlining his tendencies.
After a lowly IPL 2022 season without a half-century, Pant captained India for the first time in five T20Is against South Africa. He was targeted with deliveries far outside the off-stump by the South Africans and dismissed in four successive matches with the same ploy; his one-hander and minimal off-side range could not stand up to the relentless attack.
“He can’t throw enough muscle on that. He has got to stop looking to go aerial that far outside the off-stump. Ten times, he has been dismissed wide outside off-stump (in T20s in 2022). Some of them would have been called wide if he had not made contact with them. Because he is so far away, he has to reach out for it. He will never get enough power on it,” India batting legend Sunil Gavaskar would rue after Pant’s dismal streak.
‘Predetermined, premeditated’
Two months later, Gavaskar would add that Pant is a “predetermined, premeditated cricketer who decides quite often what he is going to do before the ball is bowled.”
Racing towards a T20 World Cup, Pant was limited from making amends then. With his accident and 14-month layoff since December 2022, he was further pruned from working on that little grey area in his game, as exemplified during his IPL return.
It was strange to have cricket’s ‘Spidey’ lose the grip on his bat as many as 20 times over the last two months. While heavy hitters like Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi, and MS Dhoni have employed the shot in the past, it came off as a rarity, a once-in-a-while abruptness in the slog that eventually crosses the fence due to the solidity in their big-hitting technique. Pant is a new-age outlier who has seen intentional value in this shot, perhaps even carrying the notion of demoralising the opposition bowler with it.
On-side affinity
The Delhi southpaw also showed more affinity for shots towards the on-side, more so behind the square of the wicket this IPL.
In his previous stint in 2022, Pant scored 49 per cent (162 of 340) of his runs through the on-side, of which 57 were made through the square leg and fine leg. He compiled 139 runs behind the square that season – 42.1 percent of his total runs.
Despite missing out on substantial knocks, Pant scored relatively freely through the off-side, accounting for 178 runs, of which almost 100 were scored through cover and long-off.
This year, Pant’s run-making has been heavily swayed (65.4 per cent) to the on-side – 292 of 446. From this, nearly 50 per cent (154) of the on-side runs have emanated from behind square, one of his dominant scoring zones of the season.
Pant’s scoring down the ground on the off-side was plugged heavily — only 16 runs through long-off in the entire IPL season. A possible explanation for this stems from Gavaskar’s observation in 2022; Pant continues to pre-empt and manufacture strokes to the on-side even from deliveries well outside the off-stump.
The positives? Pant has obliterated most lines and lengths at the stumps or on the leg side, with the pull, flick and pick up shots garnering him 156 runs at a 208 strike rate with no dismissals and a control rate above 75 per cent.
However, his control rate plummets drastically to the hook (37.50%), slog sweep (44.40%), on-side slog (16.70%), the sweep (54.50%), off-side slog (0) and late cut (66.70%) – all of which require power generation from outside the off-stump. These strokes have resulted in eight dismissals, with his habitual falling sweeps and slogs faltering due to lack of balance or timing.
Off the 20 deliveries where Pant had lost his grip or bat this season, he had been dismissed four times, highlighting the excessive risk attached to the quirks.
In fact, bowling a half-volley or fuller delivery outside the off-stump has seen the back of the Delhi Capitals skipper six times in 78 balls while aggregating 98 runs.
In the Americas, Pant will encounter scrupulous international attacks who may have already picked up on the weakness. His overall T20I numbers, 987 runs at 126.37 strike rate, do not vouch for fine reading either. Still, India’s favoured keeper can bear great satisfaction if he can overcome this specific hurdle soon in his comeback trail.