People talk lightly about certain batters' presence. For proper presence, look no further than the field settings when Pant comes out to bat even when India are struggling. At 48 for 3 and 72 for 3 in the two Tests in this series, Pant has walked out with long-on and deep midwicket in place. On both occasions, Taijul Islam had been bowling beautifully, getting the ball to dip, not letting batters go on the back foot, but not letting them play attacking drives either. This had allowed him to be in a position to benefit if the pitch did something.
Pant, though, completely changes the game. To be fair, the in-out fields were an attacking ploy for him when he came into the side back in 2018. It worked for a while with Moeen Ali getting him caught in the deep. Now Pant just picks up the singles and manipulates the field in other areas. Once he is on, those fielders cease to matter. His power-hitting has come a long way too: even if he gets too close to the ball, he can impart enough power to hit flat sixes. Among wicketkeepers, only Dhoni and Gilchrist
have hit more sixes than Pant.
With Pant, you can sometimes get a loose waft if the right kind of seamer angles, seams or swings the ball across him, but that is hardly unusual. Every batter will have some weakness, but batting is all about what you do around that weakness. The fields set for Pant tell you that the pitching zone for what qualifies as a good ball is smaller for him. And when you have to aim at a smaller target, you miss more often. He can cut and drive just as well as he can slog and reverse-ramp James Anderson. Okay that reverse-ramp might not be as high-percentage as the other shots, but you get the drift.
Any wicketkeeper will tell you what a physically taxing job it is; how far Pant moves up among the handful of all-time greats will come down to his longevity, but it is sure he is already one of them.
With stats inputs from Shiva Jayaraman