Cometh the hour, cometh Rishabh Pant

17th July, 2022. India have restricted England to a middling total and on a decent batting strip at Old Trafford, fancy their chances of clinching the series. Just as the optimism engulfs Old Trafford, the Men In Blue lose Shikhar Dhawan to a loose waft outside off stump. Rohit Sharma follows suit, nibbling and edging a length delivery to slip. And Virat Kohli, as it has often happened in the past couple of years, goes feeling for a delivery in the channel and perishes.

India, despite being in a healthy position at the break, now find themselves 38-3. Rishabh Pant is present at the other end but he hasn’t been in great form in white-ball cricket. Suryakumar Yadav dazzled during the T20Is but hasn’t found his feet this series. Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja remain top-drawer finishers. Neither, though, has an ODI hundred to their names.

This isn’t a lost cause yet. However, it seems very close to it. Not just because England are purring. But also because India floundered in a similarly tricky run-chase at Lord’s a few days ago. In that game, Pant, who batted at No.4, chipped a full toss tamely to mid-on, leading to plenty of head-scratching around the globe and opinions that he wasn’t quite suited to bat that high in an ODI.

So, Pant has something to prove on the personal front, and he has to make sure that India register another ODI series victory. For a cricketer as free-spirited as the wicket-keeper, this is the worst possible outcome – a situation where he has to curb his instincts and adhere to a slightly different norm. Pant, however, is different. Not just in how he approaches the game, but in how he almost always stands up when his team requires him most.

Prior to the 3rd ODI at Manchester, Pant hadn’t notched up a century in ODI cricket. He has five in the longest format, indicating that he has the technique and the temperament to stand his ground in international cricket. The numbers in white-ball cricket, though, painted an entirely different story.

A lot of it was skewed because of the wicket-keeper’s poor run while chasing. Before Sunday, he had scored 142 runs in 12 innings at an average of 12.9. Batting first, he had still fared decently, mustering 573 runs at an average of 47.75 and a strike rate of 116.46. But now, that anomaly has been corrected, and in some style.

Rishabh Pant produced a special knock at Old Trafford

If speaking solely about this knock, there were several elements to fall in love with. The way Pant handled himself at the start of his essay. The manner in which he absorbed pressure and even played second-fiddle to Hardik Pandya. And, of course, the strokes he unfurled once he had sized up the situation completely.

It might’ve been his first ODI hundred but at no point did it feel that he was chasing a milestone. He was in his own bubble yet acutely aware of the pressure and the magnitude of the occasion. He knew how powerful and destructive he could be, yet knew how solid and stable he needed to be for India’s cause. He understood how he was on the verge of history, but also acknowledged how imperative it was to stay in the present and watch each ball as it came.

In the context of Pant’s ODI career, this might have seemed an aberration – largely because of how he hasn’t fully fulfilled his potential in the format. But from a broader perspective, it was indicative of how he keeps finding ways to be India’s guardian angel. Whether it be at Cape Town, Edgbaston, the Gabba, the SCG, or Old Trafford. Not many are able to do this that often – that too while curbing what seems to be their natural instinct.

But Pant seems to have mastered it and that, more than anything else, should be the lasting image of this particular innings. It was excellent. It had everything you would come to expect from Pant. But it was special because it also had aspects many thought the wicket-keeper could never blend together.

Post the game, the wicket-keeper admitted that he aspired to score more runs for India in high-pressure situations because the satisfaction that provides is unparalleled. With the way he has been going, it might not be a stretch to say that he might even have been hoping for India to be put under the cosh. Just so that he could arrive, clear the air of tension and leave his own imprint on the game.

It takes a lot of character and skill to have that sort of mindset. The ability to be the cricketer that takes his side to safety. The proclivity to look at adversity in the eye and tell it you’re not afraid. There’s a perception that free-spirited cricketers, especially of Pant’s ilk, aren’t designed for such heroics.

But the wicket-keeper, like he has often done in his career, continues to change what seem conventional definitions. So much so that you start believing he almost waits for everyone to write him off, just so that he can, stone-faced, smirk at them and make them feel guilty for questioning his powers.

It's happened far too regularly to be treated as a deviation from the norm as well. Maybe then, it is the norm – a norm that is now threatening to materialize across formats, conditions and most definitely when India are in strife.

Cometh the hour, cometh Rishabh Pant. And you got to feel India will remain forever indebted to him for this particular trait – even more than his determination, extravagance, flamboyance and grit. And that tells a story in itself.