How ‘Courageous Keeper’ Rishabh Pant breached pain barrier, stood tall for his team

At lunch, almost half of the Indian team waited just outside the boundary rope to receive their hobbling teammate Rishabh Pant. Spinner Kuldeep Yadav took his helmet and bat, pacer Akash Deep the gloves, others were checking if he needed help to climb the dressing room stairs. Pant said no, walked gingerly, taking care not to put weight on his fractured right foot.

After ten flights, at the landing, he stopped for a bit. That’s when a young fan in the stands, waving a Tricolour, shouted, “We love you, Rishabh.” Pant smiled, waved his hand and took ten more discomforting steps on the balcony where coach Gautam Gambhir and the team’s most senior player Ravindra Jadeja gave him a hug. These seemed like scenes from a Bollywood sports biopic. Who writes Pant’s scripts, Old Trafford wondered.

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Before lunch on Day 2, Pant had scored just two runs from seven balls. A day earlier, he had retired hurt on 37 in the final session. On Thursday, he eventually made 54 but fought for his team on one foot. He played 27 balls with a fractured toe. From an overnight 264 for four, India were eventually bowled out for 358.

The dressing room knew the importance of Pant taking the field. If not for him, India wouldn’t have reached this score, a challenging one on this difficult track.

Less than 24 hours back, he was carted off the ground in a buggy after getting hit flush on the foot by a slower yorker from Chris Woakes. Scans on the toe showed it was a fracture. A BCCI press statement said Pant wouldn’t keep wickets but “would bat as per team requirement”. Struggling to reach 300 in the first innings, the team needed him. Through his innings, Pant looked in pain but didn’t give up. He never has.

Three years ago, he had met with a horrific car crash on the Delhi-Rourkee highway. When he was rescued from the mangled pile-up, injured beyond recognition, it was feared that he wouldn’t survive. Pant too had said that he thought his “time in this world was over”. His self-belief and incredibly high pain threshold would give him a “second life”, and also a second wind to his career.

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On this England Test tour, Pant has been the second highest run-scorer with two hundreds and has proved to be the batsman the rivals dread. Several times in this series, he has unsettled the opposition with his play. The team was aware of Pant’s importance.

Rishabh Pant, who retired hurt on the first day of the Manchester Test, has been advised six weeks rest because of a toe fracture. (AP) Rishabh Pant, who retired hurt on the first day of the Manchester Test, has been advised six weeks rest because of a toe fracture. (AP)

In a late night meeting Thursday, the BCCI medical team said the wicket-keeper would need six weeks of rest. But could he just bat for this Test with the help of pain-killers, they were asked. “He could, if need be,” was the answer. Pant didn’t travel to the stadium this morning on the team bus.

Around the time the big batting hope Jadeja was out, a car brought Pant to the ground. When the giant screen showed him in whites, a cheer rose around the stadium. And once he entered the field, the entire Old Trafford was on its feet. There was rhythmic, typically English, clapping as Pant took a while to walk to the central square.

He frustrated the English bowlers by taking them on. They tried to bowl him short balls but that didn’t bother Pant. After that, Stokes aimed at his injured leg and bowled a swinging yorker. The ball hit low on the pad, just above the fractured part of the foot. Pant clenched his teeth, shut his eyes and dragged his feet towards square leg. After the brief walk, he came back again to bat.

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Pain and Stokes go back a long way. But he wasn’t going to get intimidated. Very soon, he hit a slower one from Jofra Archer out of the ground for a six and after that played an exquisite cover drive — easily the stroke of the morning. Stokes bowled a ball wide of the crease, thinking Pant wouldn’t move his feet and struggle to middle it. Pant leaned into it and pushed it — the ball raced across the boundary line.

On BBC’s Test Match Special, they were remembering the 1984 Headingley Test where West Indian great Malcolm Marshall, playing with a double fracture, got seven wickets and batted bravely.

Former India wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta recalled watching from the dressing room, spin legend Anil Kumble bowl with a broken jaw during the 2002 tour of the West Indies. Pant at Old Trafford was joining the greats of the game who didn’t allow pain to stop them from doing their bit for the team cause. The myth of the “Courageous Keeper” grows.

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