Rishabh Pant's battle with Simon Harmer could define his first Test as captain

Standing in as captain is never straightforward, and Rishabh Pant may have it trickier than most when he becomes India's 38th Test captain on Saturday. He won't just be leading a side without its regular captain and superstar No. 4. He'll be leading an India team that's 1-0 down in a two-Test series, which means they either win this Test match or lose the series.

Roughly a year ago, India hadn't lost or even drawn a home series in 12 years. Since then, they've lost one to New Zealand, 3-0, and could now lose this one to South Africa.

Pant will be leading India at a home venue they may not feel entirely at home in. This is Guwahati's first Test match, and conditions are a bit of an unknown, with the added twist of geographical considerations that will mean unusually early starts that may not fully mitigate the effect of early sunsets. So much could hinge on decisions made while still getting to grips with these conditions.

There's a lot, in short, for Pant to think about - or to avoid thinking about.

"See, we feel at this top level, playing international cricket, you are going to be put under pressure like this, that you might be 1-0 down in the series," Pant said in his pre-match press conference on Friday. "But at the same time, as a team, we don't want to dwell too much on the result every time we play cricket because we need to have a clear mindset that, regardless [of whether] we are one up or they are one up, we still have to give our 200% when we [get] on the field.

"Taking that undue pressure is not required to play cricket, I feel. You've got to keep it simple. Just go out there and try to do your best, and eventually, the team who is going to play better cricket will win the match."

This was the broad, recurring theme of Pant's first press conference as captain. Don't put undue pressure on yourself. Focus on the controllables.

Pant knows that even the controllables are only so controllable. He was asked, for instance, about his decision to start day three of the Kolkata Test with Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel in tandem rather than one of the two left-arm spinners and Jasprit Bumrah, and whether he might have chosen differently in hindsight.

On that morning, India endured a frustrating wait for a wicket, with Temba Bavuma and Corbin Bosch putting on a match-turning partnership for the eighth wicket.

"A lot of discussion happened as a team, and we felt going with a spinner was that thought process for us," Pant said. "Yes, there is always a chance [you could have brought] a fast bowler in, that's for sure; [that thought comes in] when someone gives you a wicket afterwards.

"But that's the challenge as a captain [which] you want to face each and every day. You are going to be questioned, but eventually you are going to do what you believe is right in that given frame of mind. And trust that that person who has the ball will do the job for the team."

As the Bavuma-Bosch stand stretched on, India's fans may have harboured conflicting thoughts, because it was equally possible to think that Pant was keeping Axar on for too long, and that he was changing bowlers too frequently and not allowing them to settle. It's one of the classic conundrums of Test-match captaincy: there's a lot of time in the game, but it can get away from you in no time.

"I feel, especially in red-ball cricket, because it goes [on for a] longer period of time, small tactical changes you can overcome because it gives you time in the game," Pant said. "But at the same time, you have to keep your emotions in check and [not] let the game drift away from you for too long. You try to be as close as possible to the game during the pressure situation."

By this, Pant probably meant stay in the game for as long as possible, and take decisions that give you the best chance of doing so. He often does this brilliantly when he bats. He takes calculated risks when the bowlers are dictating terms, putting pressure back on the bowling team by upsetting their plans and field placements. In good batting conditions, when he knows runs will come if he stays in, he often makes some of his most measured, risk-free starts.

Either way, when Pant bats for any length of time against any bowler, you usually know he has a plan, whether it's a conventional one or something only he could have conceived and backed himself to execute.

In Kolkata, however, Pant, for once, looked uncertain when he faced the offspinner Simon Harmer, seemingly unsure of his ability either to attack or defend in those conditions. Across the two innings, in which he made 27 and 2, Pant faced 23 balls from Harmer, and played nine false shots.

Before this match, Pant had played nine or more false shots against a spinner in six other Test matches. The false shots came over far longer periods in those six games; he scored at least one half-century in each of them.

You can, of course, only read so much into numbers like this from a one-off Test on a pitch of extreme variability. Guwahati's conditions, from all pre-match indications, should be far more reasonable to bat in. No bowler, if this is so, should look nearly as unplayable as Harmer did at Eden Gardens against India's left-hand batters, and in particular Pant.

But Harmer's threat in Kolkata wasn't all to do with the pitch. He bowled with exacting control of length while varying his speeds and trajectories effortlessly. He will continue to pose problems even in decent batting conditions. Pant probably knows this, and is probably already formulating his response.

And this could well turn out to be a key contest in Guwahati. South Africa know all about Pant's ability to change games quickly, having seen it even in Kolkata when he took Keshav Maharaj for 22 runs in just ten balls in the first innings. They will bowl as much of Harmer to Pant as they possibly can when he's at the crease.

How Pant handles those spells, and how well his batting partners help him in this task, could have far-reaching knock-on effects on the Guwahati Test. Effects that could go a far greater distance towards winning India the Test match than any captaincy call he makes.