Pant relishes 'senior' tag but also focuses on 'individual' game

That Rishabh Pant and Sunil Gavaskar could turn the "stupid, stupid, stupid" bit into a commercial is as big a sign as any that what might at first appear stupid - Gavaskar's words, not ours - from Pant can turn out to be beneficial for all concerned after all.

It is the usual tight rope that maverick batters such as Pant must walk: pundits tend to comment on the results, not the process. When audacious batting comes off and spreads fields, the same pundits appear in awe. When it doesn't come off, it can look silly - or stupid. Pant responded to the criticism with his slowest innings of 10 or more but it ended when he pulled a long hop straight to deep midwicket.

India could have drawn that MCG Test but Pant would have seen with horror the next six wickets falling for just 34 runs. He was still good enough to top-score for India in both the innings of the next Test, played on a brutish SCG pitch. In the 43 Tests that Pant has played, all top-six batters have averaged 31.33. His average is 42.11.

Pant has an exceptional record over as long as 43 Tests, and part of it is down to his individualistic methods. His audacity is what wins India the Gabba Test and the series even as the coaches are being driven up the wall, hoping he plays for the draw. Difficult as it might be given the scrutiny around India's cricket, Pant has managed to retain that lightness absolutely necessary for his style of play. He comes back to England not just as the only visiting wicketkeeper to have scored two hundreds, but a tag that might challenge that lightness: that of a senior batter.

There is time to go but Pant wore that tag with characteristic lightness. "It feels good, boss. Finally," Pant said at the press conference how it felt to be called a "senior" batter. As the laughter subsided, he said: "It feels good but at the same time, you know it's a responsibility also to share your knowledge, your experience with our new players, new youngsters coming to the team. But at the same time, not focusing on that senior part too much, you still have to play the game, you still have to learn the game as an individual and keep helping people around you. That's how I look at it."

Pant doesn't see the seniority - he is the most experienced batter after KL Rahul - affecting his batting when he is in the middle. "See it's extracted responsibility, but at the same time when you are in the middle of the ground, you are not thinking, 'Oh, I'm the vice-captain. I'm the senior player.' You're just a batsman in the middle. You've got to do the best you can from your side, and eventually the game will take care of itself."

It is when he is not batting that Pant wants to take on the weight of the leadership role. "A new start for us," Pant said as he prepares to be the deputy to Shubman Gill. "Definitely big people have left, yes there will be a gap, but at the same time it's an opportunity for us to build a new culture or take the existing culture forward, just adding to it.

"Being in a great frame of mind, helping the new players to learn and improve themselves in overseas conditions. That is something we look forward to, and sharing knowledge with each other, having that care and love in their dressing room for each other. And that is something we're looking forward to do."

It is astonishing how much some of the young Indian cricketers go through. Pant is the only visiting wicketkeeper to have scored hundreds in Australia, England and South Africa, something a few acknowledged batting greats haven't managed. He has done all this in a bowling era. He is a World T20 champion. He has missed an ODI World Cup because of a life-threatening accident. He has been called "stupid, stupid, stupid" on live broadcast by a legend of the game. Now he is the elder statesman. All of this at just 27.

You can't manage all this without the love and care Pant spoke of. It's his time now to give it.