Toughened Pant reaps rewards of flexibility

Roorkee-Delhi-Rajasthan-Delhi. India Under-19s left-handed opening batsman Rishabh Pant has covered a lot of distance in his early teens to make a name for himself. He switched schools, moved bases in the hunt for a coach and was even thrown out of an academy once.

A few years later he is opening the batting with the India U-19 captain Ishan Kishan at the iconic Shere Bangla Stadium in a World Cup. He unfurls a swashbuckling and record-breaking fifty with a strike-rate of 325. Seventy-eight runs off 24 balls with nine fours and five sixes.

Pant's approach was visible from the first ball he faced: he made room and swatted an off-side delivery to the midwicket boundary for four. Next ball, slogged for two and the third for three more. If that didn't make his intentions clear, he heaved three short balls to collect a four and two sixes in the next over. The bowlers kept serving short deliveries and Pant kept wiping them off the pitch that had transformed into a platter for him.

Was it a plan to go after the bowling from the first ball? "Pata nahi...ball aayi aur ho gaya (Don't think so…I kept hitting the balls as they came)," Pant said candidly after the match.

Pant was born in Uttarakhand, and moved from Roorkee to Delhi with his parents at the age of 12 to seek guidance from Sonnet Club coach Tarak Sinha, who is known for mentoring another stylish left-handed batsman - Shikhar Dhawan. Sinha was also the director of academies for the Rajasthan Cricket Association then and advised Pant to move to Rajasthan. Pant obeyed, changed his school and went on to represent the district, Under-14s and Under-16s sides in Rajasthan.

"Pant was a hard-hitting batsman since then and used to keep wicket too," Sinha told ESPNcricinfo. "He looked promising to me. He used to have a lot of time to play the ball which is a mark of a good player."

Pant was, however, ousted from Rajasthan for being an "outsider". But Pant had a thirst and Sinha wanted to quench it. He then moved base to Delhi on Sinha's advice for his last two years of school, and his hardwork was rewarded when he got his first-class debut less than three weeks after his 18th birthday, in October 2015. He scored a brisk 57 in the second innings while opening with former Under-19s captain Unmukt Chand.

A call to the India Under-19s side ensued for a tri-series involving Bangladesh and Afghanistan in Kolkata, with the Indian selectors trying out different players and combinations for the upcoming World Cup. He notched an 88-ball 87 against Afghanistan, a 26-ball 51 against Bangladesh on his Youth ODI debut and followed it with a century against Afghanistan in the last league game of the series. Fourteen fours and four sixes in his knock of 118 from 98 and he topped the run-scoring charts with a tally of 282 at an average of 70.50 and a strike rate of 123.68.

"His ball sense is very good and I asked him to keep working on it and made him concentrate on keeping too," Sinha said. "He plays pace very well, that's a very good quality in him. Most players are weak against pace but he is very good against it. His footwork is very good and his hand-eye coordination is really good which is why his timing is really good."

Against Nepal on Monday, Pant started out using a lot of power to collect boundaries, but changed strategy when he realised that was not the only way to go about it.

"I didn't go for power, just went for timing and it connected well," Pant said. "At the beginning, I was looking to hit hard but later opted for timing, thought it would be better. So I timed and it worked."

Sinha says he talks to Pant every day and watches all his innings to offer advice over the phone. "I had told him pitches would be slow in Bangladesh so if you bat first then concentrate more on the back foot because the pitch will be soft. And restrict the front-foot strokes that are played on the rise," he recollects the advice he gave before the World Cup started. "Today they batted second and the wicket had become dry, so better for batting."

Pant is also the vice-captain of the side and the wicketkeeper too. In five days from now, India's quarter-final will coincide with the IPL auction and Pant can't hide the fact that it was probably playing on his mind.

"It (IPL auction) is always in the mind but it wasn't during the match," Pant said with a smile. He is among the 204 uncapped India players on the auction list with a reserve price of INR 10 lakhs. Having switched several sides at an early age, does he have a preference for an IPL side? "I don't know anyone there so anyone will do."