Why somersaulting Rishabh Pant is a box-office superstar in traditional Leeds

Indian Express

21-06-2025

Anyone who was at Headingley on Saturday, be it English, Indian or neutral, would tell you why Test cricket needs the delightfully entertaining and daringly innovative Rishabh Pant. Centuries by Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill on Day 1 were high art, they were exhibits of cricket correctness, the kind fans in these are part have appreciated for centuries.
But on Day 2, at the home ground of England's most traditional county, Yorkshire, Pant put up a show that had sights and strokes, the locals would have imagined, forget seen. Pant, unbeaten on 65, took a little more than an hour to be India's third centurion as the visitors continued to flex the batting muscle. He scored a box-office knock of 134 from 178 balls. This was followed by an anti-climax of wickets falling in a clutch. At lunch, India were 457/7. The cloud was overcast and the bowlers were smiling again but not everyone was mesmerised by the Pant magic.
Monumental batting efforts by the visiting team can get boring for home fans but not on days when Pant is sauntering on the 22-yards as if he owns this prime property. Like a daily soap, his batting has twists with the unexpected always round the corner. It is this anticipation that makes the Indian vice-captain a charismatic character and fan magnet.
WHAT A KNOCK, WHAT A CELEBRATION! 💪💯
2018, 2021 & now 2025 – 𝙍𝙄𝙎𝙃𝘼𝘽𝙃-𝙋𝘼𝙉𝙏𝙄 continues on the English soil! 💪
👉 7th Test century
👉 4th vs ENG in Tests
👉 3rd in ENG in Tests#ENGvIND 1st Test, Day 2 | Streaming LIVE NOW on JioHotstar 👉 https://t.co/PLSZ49Mrj4… pic.twitter.com/MUySzy7Jr8
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) June 21, 2025
Like he did at Headingley, he can suddenly rush down the track to take a crack at the ball as if he wanted to rip the leather off it. Also he could pull out from his bag of tricks, something unseen that can drop the jaw of the partisan and aloof cricket fan.
How can a cricket fan be unimpressed by his tumbling 'semi-sweep, semi-scoop' to the fine-leg area or the single summersault he came up with after completing his hundred. That signature Pant shot and his unique celebration had even Barmy Army stand up and applaud.
It was a ball from off-spinner Shoaib Bashir pitched on the leg-stump. There was a leg-slip in place and also a widish fine leg too, enough protection for any Pant adventurism. But these were conventional field settings for text-books not for a man with the habit of taking detours to the less-travelled path.
Pant first came inside the line of the ball and went down on one knee, the same one shattered during his horrific car crash in December 2022, and waited for the ball to bounce. Once it did, he helped it over the leg slip and while doing so landing in the crease on his back and rolling over. On the Test Match Special, former England international Isa Guha, would instantly come up with an apt name for the shot – 'It's a roly-poly' shot', she screamed. There was commotion in the stand, everyone wanted to say something about what they just saw. Those who missed would crane their necks to watch the replay on the giant screen.
EFFORTLESS! 🤌
A positive start for #TeamIndia as @RishabhPant17 picks up from where he left on Day 1! 👏
Will he bring up his 3rd Test century in England? 🤔#ENGvIND 1st Test, Day 2 | LIVE NOW streaming on JioHotstar 👉 https://t.co/PLSZ49Mrj4 pic.twitter.com/4ZCSXjxvlL
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) June 21, 2025
With such a buzz around the ground and drama in the air, the other entertainer of the field, English captain, Ben Stokes, rushed to the big stage. He couldn't allow Pant, in 90s now, to take the spotlight all alone. His second ball was a nasty bouncer, Pant couldn't have been intimidated by the aggression. He swung his bat but missed. The Barmy Army, sniffing a contest, launched one of their chants. They were roaring, they wanted more. But soon there were drinks, it was the most untimely break. Pant was 98.
After the drinks, Stokes was bowling to Pant again. Interval over, the story continued. Pant has 7 hundreds but he has been out 6 times in 90s. He has thrown away hundreds many times as he is too committed to his brand of batting. But today, he was slightly pragmatic – just for that one Stokes over.
After taking a single on the sixth Stokes ball, he was ready to face Bashir, a simpler task On the very first ball, he stepped out to hit a one-handed six. He then for a brief moment, kept a distance from his captain. He would drop his bat, take his gloves off and come up with a somersault. A gymnastic judge would give it a modest 6 but Headingley would call it a perfect 10. No one could have sat on the seat, everyone stood up to give a standing ovation to Test cricket's modern-day daredevil.
But it shouldn't be confused that Pant is a happy-go-lucky slam bang Test cricketer. His batting is a combination of great skills, great hands and a deep understanding of a bowler's psyche.
An anecdote from the famous 2021 Border Gavaskar series explains how the thinking cricketer decides to go for his audacious shots. It is when the bowler's expect the least. There is a method to his mayhem.
Facing the GOAT offie Nathan Lyon early in the innings, Pant got a delivery that on the leg-stump and deviated devilishly towards slip. An amused Lyon smiled, Pant showed no emotions. But the next ball he jumped out and dispatched it out the boundary.
'Top bowlers don't think that a batsman will take a chance after the ball has turned that much. But mere dimag mai alag hi planning chal rahi thi (I had a different plan running in my head). Agar mere area mai ho toh, I will hit. More so since he didn't expect me to do so,' he would later say.
That's Pant, the man who gets into the minds of his rivals and heart of the fans. Test cricket doesn't have many who can get crowds on their feet at both home and abroad.