Rishabh Pant: The man still loves a Test Drive

Traumatic experiences can alter your personality. The bigger the trauma, the bigger the change. Even genetically inherited personality could be subjected to modification, given, that the 3 pounds of the neuron embedded in your skull receives a psychological jolt, which could draw your consciousness back down the memory lane and crave for momentary respite, with a bid to get back to senses. 

At least that’s what Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud have described in their work.

Almost 30 hours prior to New Year 2022, a Mercedes-Benz SUV pierced the moist Dehradun highway as the tyres rolled over the dew procured on the asphalt and the speedometer screamed thrill. But as the white car reached the Mohammadpur Jat area near Roorkee, it collided with the divider, toppled and fire engulfed the metal beast. 

The truck drivers were said to be the first to see the catastrophe. They barged towards the spot and picked the person who was loathed in blood, his back burnt, and could not sense his one leg. 

It was the Indian cricket team’s historic Gabba win hero, Rishabh Rajendra Pant.

Former India fielding coach, R Sridhar had said that, at first, Pant’s “reluctance to inputs drove me nuts, his stubbornness”.

Australia’s one marauding wicketkeeper-batter, Adam Gilchrist admitted “Fearless Pant attacks a bit more than I did”. 

“A misleading package,” that’s how Sanjay Manjrekar described Pant’s game.

But here, Pant rested firmly on a bed in the Roorkee hospital, recollecting what he described “was the first time I had such a feeling in life”.

The German-made, Mercedes-AMG GLE Coupe had nine airbags, a blind spot monitor, a 360-degree camera, ABS with EBD, ESP and adaptive LED headlights.

But none could come to the rescue when Pant sunk deep into the abyss. His consciousness searched for a light, lying flawed on the highway with a thought he later described as feeling “my time in this world was over”. 

For two years since then, he challenged the doctor’s mulling over cutting his leg. Dejected faces of family members, fans lamenting on social media and the hindrance post missing out on playing World Cup 2023 in India.

The body weight showed extra pounds, leg swollen, burnt marks on the face, scrapped back covered via an oversized T-shirt, and a walking stick in hand. That’s what the public saw when he uploaded pictures on his Instagram handle. “One step forward, one step stronger and one step better,” was the caption.

The brain does things that you seldom think existed in your subconscious. People refer to it as “shadow,” which defines the real ‘self’, when the persona (defence mechanism) is subjugated.

You might think, everything we do in our daily lives is a persona. The coder, painter, actor, dancer, carpenter, plumber and whatnot? Then, what is the self? That’s the cause you are dedicated to. It could be everything and every other thing mentioned above. Or at least say, everything you know you are keen to surrender to. 

While speaking of Pant, his manager Puneet Solanki was the first known human interaction for the India cricketer in hospital on a dreadful night that refused to pass. Solanki acknowledged the sign from Pant to lean and he whispered, “Please take the pads off my legs and hold these gloves”.

His shadow echoed in raucus within Solanki’s ear drums.

With danger out of sight now, Pant was back to the recovery process. BCCI provided every facility for him at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. The doctor had prescribed 16 to 18 months of recovery time, Pant said “I would reduce six months from it,” and started the grind. 

Itna maza nahin aaya (I did not enjoy that much)

Pant said this in the Delhi Capitals dressing room while watching their games in IPL 2023 during the recuperation period. He would have said this to himself deep down after being compared to MS Dhoni and in Pant’s words, “cried in my room and could not breathe,” as India started expecting Dhoni in Pant. 

With the willpower becoming the new Mitochondria in his body, it took almost 2 years for him to enter the field again. The performance of Delhi Capitals in IPL 2024 was subdued but showed glimpses of vintage Pant.

The southpaw flew to the West Indies and USA for the T20 World Cup and played some breathtaking knocks under pressure against Pakistan and the USA as India lifted the Cup in June 2024.

Pressure. Wish there could be something to measure this in humans. The stats would be alarming given what a person could surpass and who knows? Ignite competition amongst every other person to possess the record stat.

Let’s keep that aside.

The body has recovered, the mind looks solid and what about the Cognitive functions?

When a catastrophe hits every sensory part of the body, the mind goes back to the rescue site. Imagine being under house arrest with no control over movements and cut from usual outside life. 

Scary! Yeah, it is.

When Cognitive functions of the brain take a hit, abilities such as processing speed, decision-making, reasoning, and others also take a backseat. 

Glad that Pant would have never undergone such a mental state, but certain cricket pundits were sceptical of his ability to strike a blow fitting his usual standards in Test cricket. 

Endurance… that’s what the longest format of cricket demands.

Patience… Pant had left it long back on the Dehradun school desk.

Speed… though not behind the wheels, he ought to enjoy that in front of the wicket.

Result… as the man says, he believed in the process.

Believe. That’s the only thing he kept intact all this while within him.

The overcast condition in Bengaluru made New Zealand pacers spit fire at around 150 kmph. While the Indian batters struggled, then there was Pant, bending one knee against a 150 kmph throwdown, and scooping the leather over a short fine leg. The bouncers directed towards his head were steadily put behind the wicketkeeper.

99 off 105 with a strike rate of 94.29. The cricket analyst’s search for stats differing from the present one bears no result. 

Mumbai, on a spinning track, the whole team struggled against the Kiwi spinners. The ball turned as if it was touching the cobbled street’s surface. The pace was not the issue, the tackling of unprecedented was the big question.

60 off 59 balls with 8 fours and 2 maximums at a strike rate of 101.69.In the second innings, 64 off 57 balls with 9 boundaries and 1 maximum at a strike rate of 112.28. India lost the series, Pant was the highest run-scorer in the series. But for him personally, the Test in India was passed.

"I will still drive because I love to. Just because there was a setback doesn't mean that you do not do those things ever again. Nowadays I am told, 'Yaar, don't drive bilkul [at all].' But no one was more scared than me. No one was more upset than me.”

Exactly, only the sword knows the number of sparks that emerged when it collided with other swords before the bearer kissed it as his favourite on the battlefield. 

Pant still cracks the opposition’s mindset with the same agile. He bats with the same fervour and fearlessness was always his shadow, though the momentary hiccup was unavoidable. 

He is still taking a “Test Drive” before he will himself eventually decide to install a Speed Governor at some point in life with the Australian night and sunny noons welcoming the left-handed, eyebrow-raising, 1.7m beast.