‘Superstar’ Pant is well and truly back

It was just over a year ago when Rishabh Pant feared not playing cricket again. Just days after he blazed his way to a vital 93 in a Test against Bangladesh in tough Mirpur conditions, Pant was severely injured in a life-threatening car crash and at one point the doctors treating him, much to his horror, spoke to him about the possibility of severing one of his legs.

Fast forward 16 months and Rishabh Pant is having a sensational Indian Premier League (IPL). Watching him move around the crease and send the ball to different parts of the ground with his typical outrageous shots is a sight for sore eyes.

Leading up to the match against Gujarat Titans on Wednesday, Pant had had a decent run in the ongoing IPL. He had hit a couple of fifties and showed glimpses of his big-hitting prowess. 

But finally against Gujarat, in his ninth game of the tournament and at Delhi Capitals' home ground, Pant batted like the much younger version of himself - dynamic, ruthless and full of confidence. 

He got a favourable entry point as well. He walked out to the middle in the sixth over, right towards the end of the powerplay, and it gave him ample time to follow his template. 

Pant is highly successful batting at the top four, especially at three where he averages just a shed under 40 and strikes at 169. It means he finds a lot of success when he comes out to bat a bit early.

The early entry worked in his favour as he took a bit of time initially and then unleashed the free-flowing version of himself.

His first boundary was a trademark pick-up shot over fine leg off left-arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmad. That shot really set the tone for the southpaw after a tough game a few nights ago against Sunrisers Hyderabad. 34% of his runs against Gujarat came from the fine leg region.

Pant (88* off 43) and Axar Patel came out with the plan of neutralising the Afghan spin duo of Noor and Rashid Khan. They were belted for 73 runs in their seven overs and it kept their lead spinner from the previous match - R Sai Kishore - out of the attack. 

The left-handed batter reached his fifty in 34 balls as Delhi were going around nine an over. At the end of the 18th over, Pant was 57 off 36, striking at a decent 158. 

But a total of 200+ has of late become a norm in the tournament with four out of the last six IPL games seeing the team batting first score more than 200. Delhi were 171-4 after 18 and needed a couple of big overs to take the total well past the par score. 

Tristan Stubbs smashed Kishore for two sixes and as many fours and Delhi were close to the 200-run mark (193-4) before the final over began. 

Gujarat captain Shubman Gill went back to his tried and tested death-overs weapon Mohit Sharma, who hadn't had a particularly good night with the ball. But Gill hoped he would keep Pant quiet with his array of variations.

Mohit tried the yorker, went full and wide, attempted the slower bouncer and whatnot. But Pant was in a different zone altogether. He smashed five of the six legal deliveries of that over for a boundary and among them, four went for six. The only four that he hit in that over was probably the best of the lot.

It was a yorker-length delivery wide outside off and Pant reached out for it and in the process completely lost his balance but still managed to hit it for a boundary. The screengrab went viral on social media. There were doubts about Pant's form despite the runs but that shot really put the debate to rest.

On current form, Pant might just leave behind the likes of Sanju Samson, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Jitesh Sharma and Dinesh Karthik as India's first-choice keeper in their T20 World Cup XI.

"Another visa stamped [for] Pant. Great to see the superstar back in full swing!" wrote former cricketer and IPL-winning coach Tom Moody on X.

The Delhi captain is currently the third-highest run-getter in the tournament (342 runs at 48.9, strike-rate 161.3) and the last time he had a better season in terms of both average strike-rate was way back in 2018. In that year, he had his breakthrough season, scoring 684 runs at an average of 52.6 and a strike rate of 173.6.

After recovering from the horrific car crash, Pant said he was "lucky" to have a second life. Probably that thought unleashed the unhinged version of himself. 

He has drastically improved his wicketkeeping skills as well. He was the Player of the Match against Gujarat in the previous fixture for his keeping (two catches and as many stumpings). On Wednesday, he took one catch off pacer Rasikh Salam standing up to the stumps and another good one off wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav even though the latter put a lot of revs on the ball.

His numbers are pretty average by anyone's standards in T20Is (strike rate of 126.5) but one would love to see him present the unshackled version of himself for India in the T20 World Cup.