Brisbane: It will never get old. A bit like the six by MS Dhoni in the 2011 World Cup final. Rishabh Pant’s four will forever be enshrined in our memory. When you think of Gabba, you think of Pant and that boundary.
It wasn’t even well struck. It was a half push-half block, hit in the gap. There was no mid-off and the ball didn’t exactly race to the boundary either. Rather, it seemed to trickle towards the fence. And that is why Pant kept running before he finally punched the air in delight. Unforgettable.
At 9:34 am on Thursday morning, Pant stepped on the ground for the first time since that day. He took the shortest of pauses and closed his eyes before looking around and taking in the sight and slowly, as is his way, joining the team for its training session.
The pause, short as it was, would have been enough to revisit that evening. It must have all seemed so surreal then. For many Indians, it still is.
On air, the commentary went like this: “It’s full, it’s down the ground, it will be at least one, Saini he’s got an injury in the groin… it goes as far as the fence. Indiaaa… incredible. Rishabh Pant is the star. India win the Test… they win the series… and they win the hearts and the minds of cricket fans all around the world. Test cricket’s heart is beating hard, it’s beating true. One of the most incredible sporting performances ever seen on Australian soil. They were down, they were out and India have risen and they have held on to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in a truly epic Test series.”
Pant (who made 89 not out) was a 23-year-old then — just 15 Tests old. Shubman Gill (who made 91) was 22 and a mere three Tests old. The task in front of them was huge: chase down 328 to win or last 98 overs for a draw to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. On most grounds that would have been difficult but this was Gabba, Australia’s fortress, where they had not lost since 1988.
In the Indian dressing room, coach Ravi Shastri and skipper Ajinkya Rahane wanted the team to play ’normal cricket’ but they forgot that the definition of normal differs from generation to generation.
“I think right from the very beginning, we had a chat, Jinks, myself, the support staff and we said let’s play normal cricket,” Shastri said after the win. “Just play your natural game, don’t try and manufacture something. Try and set the game up more than anything else. Take it session by session and then if you get an opportunity, towards the end with wickets in hand, then you can think about going for it. But the innings Gill played really set the platform and the tone because it was an outstanding innings for someone on his first tour of Australia on a bouncy Gabba track. To take on the attack, the way he did, he got the momentum going.”
Before speaking about Pant, the coach had smiled… for here was a guy who even Shastri couldn’t define.
“And then there was Rishabh Pant. You know, you can’t change his style of play. In his mind… he was always chasing. He kept looking at the scoreboard. You knew he had some other ideas.”
And these ideas will never get old. The audacity to play the reverse ramp, the first-ball down-the-wicket kind of intent, the madness to chase victory and victory alone. So uniquely Pant.
When Pant reflected on his Gabba heroics at Star Sports’s “Star Nahi Far” event just before this tour Down Under, he shared how it took him time to fully understand its impact.
“At the time, I didn’t grasp its significance,” Pant admitted. “Rohit bhai (Sharma) told me, Tujhe nahi pata tune kya karra hai (You have no idea what you’ve achieved). I was puzzled because my only goal was to win the match, but now I understand what he meant.”
It’s something like going to heaven or perhaps finding a slice of it on earth itself. Pant and Gill have gone through a lot after that. The car accident could have easily ended Pant’s career and perhaps the miracle is that he is back and still aiming to be better. Gill’s form in Test cricket has been middling at best but he is only 25 and the team trusts him.
Returning to Gabba gives both players a chance to, in their minds at least, relive the day when they smashed limits — set by the world and by themselves. If they need inspiration, maybe the mere sight of the ground will provide it.
The Aussies, as Mitch Marsh said on Thursday, are trying to forget 2021 or acting as if they already have. They are trying to move on as they should too but Pant and Gill and everyone else in the team will always have that moment. It will never get old until perhaps we find a moment to top it.
