Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant opened up on Suryakumar Yadav’s title-winning catch against South Africa in the ICC T20 World Cup in the final at Barbados in June, saying that the ball did not cross the boundary because of the prayers of the die-hard fans waiting for an ICC trophy to come home after 11 years.
India ended their 11-year-long ICC trophy drought as Virat Kohli (76), Hardik Pandya (3/20) and Jasprit Bumrah (2/18) starred in Men in Blue’s seven-run win over South Africa in the final at Barbados on June 29. Virat’s masterclass knock helped India reach 176/7 in 20 overs, while Bumrah and Pandya unleashed a pace choke on Proteas, who were once riding on the high of a 27-ball 52 by Klaasen, snatching the match from a losing position to restrict Proteas to 169/8 in their 20 overs.
During the game, India were in huge trouble while defending 177 against a highly-attacking Proteas batting unit.
The 15th over bowled by Axar Patel saw him being dismantled by Heinrich Klaasen and smashed for 24 runs, leaving India with just 30 runs to defend in 30 balls. But from then on, the trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh unleashed a brilliant pace-choke, while also taking crucial wickets. Pandya secured the crucial wicket of Klaasen in the 17th over, while a fine catch from Suryakumar Yadav at long-off in the final over saw him get the prized scalp of David Miller, when India needed to defend 16 runs in six balls. Pacers brought India into the game with a death-over masterclass and Protwas was left seven runs short of the target.
Speaking on the comedian Tanmay Bhat’s Youtube Channel, Pant recalled when the ball was in the air, everyone thought it would go for a six, but the fans’ prayers did not let it happen.
“When the ball was in the air, it felt like everything was gone. When it hit the bat, it seemed like a sure-shot six. The ball did not cross the boundary line because of the Indian fans’ prayers,” said Pant on Sunday.
Rishabh, who was a key star of India’s World Cup triumph, said that when he was away from the game due to his life-threatening road accident back in 2022, all he thought about was winning the World Cup for India. But he also talked about the importance of moving on and focusing on the task in hand while still savouring those moments.
“As a cricketer, you dream of winning the World Cup. During the injury, I was thinking that I wanted to win the World Cup. To come back into the side and directly win the World Cup was an unbelievable feeling,” said Pant.
“I am not thinking much about it now because I feel in India people forget after 10-15 days what you have done. So, it is important for you to forget these things as well. That moment will always be there with me, but now we have to move on and focus on what’s next,” he added.
After a life-threatening road accident in December 2022, Pant made his comeback to competitive cricket during the Indian Premier League (IPL), captaining Delhi Capitals. DC finished in the sixth spot with seven wins, seven losses, and 14 points and failed to move to playoffs. He scored 446 runs in 13 matches at a strike rate of over 155 with three half-centuries and emerged as the team’s top run-getter.
Pant was also a vital member of India’s ICC T20 World Cup-winning team. He was the third-highest run-getter for India in their T20 World Cup triumph. He amassed 171 runs at an average of 24.42 in eight matches and also contributed with his skills behind the stumps with 14 dismissals, the most by a wicketkeeper in a single T20 WC edition. His influential performances helped India end their 13-year-long ICC World Cup drought.
Now, he will be in action during the first Test against Bangladesh at Chennai from September 19 onwards. However, other than Test matches against Bangladesh and New Zealand at home, Pant’s most anticipated matches will be against Australia during the Border Gavaskar Trophy from November 22 onwards, away from home.
In the recently concluded Duleep Trophy tie for India B, he starred in his team’s win over Shubman Gill led India A, with scores of 7 and 61 and some fine work behind the stumps.
On his attacking gameplay and if he considered playing in much safer way, Pant gave a hilarious answer while referring to England’s highly-attacking ‘Bazball’ approach to cricket under skipper Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum in Test cricket.
“Abhi Bazball dekh rahe ho toh maza aa rha hai. Jab mein pehle kar rha tha toh acha nai lag rha tha kya?” (When you see Bazball you enjoy it, but when I did it before did you not like it or what?),” Pant remarked.
The dashing wicketkeeper-batter also reflected on his relationship with former coach Ravi Shastri, saying that the former head coach gave him a lot of “freedom and understanding” and even asked him to play reverse sweeps against off-spinners, who were doing well against Pant at one point.
“It was an amazing relationship. There was a lot of freedom and understanding with Ravi bhai. Instead of telling me not to do something, he would give me a better option. I believe in that approach. I do not like when someone says that this cannot be done. I was getting out to off-spinners very often at one point. He told me that I needed to do something about facing off-spinners. He asked me to start playing the reverse sweep against off-spinners,” he recalled.
On his bonding with skipper Rohit Sharma and understanding his on-field messages delivered in a hilarious, at times cryptic and typical Mumbaikar manner, Rishabh said in apparent jest that though he is able to understand what Rohit is able to say while on-field, he does not understand him much off the field.
The two-match series against Bangladesh will be starting from September 19 onwards, with the first Test taking place in Chennai and the second Test from September 27 onwards in Kanpur.
Indian squad for the first Test against Bangladesh: Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, and Yash Dayal.
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