OPINION
Follow UsIt is really anyone’s guess where Rishabh Pant will be batting in 18 months’ time at the 2023 World Cup. For all we know, he could be deployed as a permanent floater with no fixed position who bobbles up and down the order based on the game situation and the team’s needs.
But across the past 12 months, starting with the series against England, one thing has become abundantly clear: that regardless of where he bats in the middle, Pant should be one of the first names on the team sheet in ODI cricket.
On Friday in Ahmedabad, as if the above-mentioned statement needed reiteration, the dazzling southpaw gave yet another timely reminder of why ‘Pant x middle-order’ is such an enticing prospect. Why, from a purely batting standpoint, he brings to the table a package that is unique — precisely what the team has been longing for.
Since his re-integration back into the ODI set-up at the start of 2021, Pant has been India’s crisis man in the format, particularly whilst batting first.
In the series decider against England in Pune, when India were reeling at 157/4 with more than half the innings left, it was his 78 (and subsequently the 99-run stand with Hardik Pandya) that propelled the team towards a match-winning total. Only a game before that he’d struck a 40-ball 77 when the match was still in the balance, with the team middling at 158/3 in the 32nd over.
And more recently against South Africa in Paarl, he single-handedly injected momentum into the innings when the Proteas’ slower bowlers were all over the Indian batters. Walking in at 64/2 in the 13th over, a dashing 71-ball 85 enabled India to remarkably score at over 6 runs an over for the next 20 overs.
Today in Ahmedabad, Pant dragged the team out of a crisis for the fourth time in his last 8 innings. But unlike the previous three, this had a distinctive touch to it: he did not counter-attack.
With no conscious or predetermined plan to take the attack to the opposition, Pant batted in cruise control. He dealt in singles and doubles, was very picky about the balls he went after and had a boundary percentage of 53.57%, the second lowest in his ODI career in knocks where he’s managed to cross 40.
And yet, as it would turn out, he would eventually end up with the highest strike rate of all Indian batters, highlighting just how unique a player he is.
Not for the first time he ended up leaving a lot of runs behind, perishing immediately after getting to fifty, but by the time he left, the rebuild had been complete: the team had crossed 150 in the 30th over and, despite the initial collapse, was looking at a very competitive total.
It was yet another peek into the potential of an ever-evolving three-dimensional batsman who, despite being far from a finished article, continues making a gargantuan impact.
What makes Pant mighty effective (and a must) in the middle-order
As someone who can bat anywhere from 3 to 7 and influence matches the same way regardless of where he bats, Pant is, by some distance, the most versatile middle-order batter in India. This alone makes him a captivating pick, not even taking into consideration the fact that he also keeps wickets.
But what really makes him stand out is his proficiency in overs 11-40.
Since March 2021, 20 batters have scored 200 or more runs in the aforementioned middle-over phase in ODI cricket. Among those, Pant is the only batter to both average over 35 and strike at over 110. 
While batting first (setting targets is something India have struggled to do, of late), the average is an astounding 61.75, while the strike rate too shoots up to nearly 120.
Pant dominates a phase where quick runs are generally hard to come by - what this does is put the opposition under pressure even if they’ve skittled out the top-order cheaply. Couple this with his ability to also expertly construct an innings, he provides a package that pretty much no other batter in the country does.
That he is so good in the middle-overs is primarily down to how competent he is against spin. Since March 2021, Pant has scored 183 runs versus spinners in the middle-overs at an average of 91.5 and a strike rate of 120.4. No other batter in the world that has scored 150 or more runs versus spin in middle overs in the said period has a strike rate that’s comparable.
Among Indians, KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav are the only other players who come close to Pant in terms of effectiveness against spin in the middle overs.
Not only is Pant, at least on current form, the best player of spin in the side, being a left-hander he also provides a natural counter against left-arm and wrist spinners.
Onus on the management to get the best out of Pant
Three and a half years after making his ODI debut, it is really only now that Pant has been handed both a continuous run and a well-defined role. And the upshot of the same has been the flamboyant left-hander finally showcasing his true potential, something he’d only done in red-ball cricket until recently.
This, though, is just the starting point.
There will be lean phases and low scores. There will be untimely failures and yes, there will be hideous dismissals like the one in Cape Town last month. But ultimately the upside blows the cons out of the water, and thus the onus is now on the management to ensure that they get the very best out of the youngster. He is, after all, still years away from hitting his peak as a batsman.
A year into his second coming as a limited overs international batsman, Pant has shown enough to make the world believe that residing inside him is a special batsman that has the potential to do great things.
