Lord’s, England: India’s batting coach, Sitanshu Kotak, has offered a fascinating insight into the thought process of maverick wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, revealing that while Pant is highly articulate about his game, he prefers absolute silence from his batting partners during his innings.
Kotak referenced a notable incident during the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test in Sydney. On the final day, after captain Ajinkya Rahane’s early dismissal, Pant entered to mount a sensational, game-saving effort. He was on 97 when Nathan Lyon began the 80th over, and partner Cheteshwar Pujara advised him to be watchful with the new ball approaching. Pant, however, charged the first ball and was dismissed, devastated by the miscue. He reportedly blamed Pujara for planting a seed of doubt that he felt contributed to his dismissal.
Speaking two days before the third Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy Test at Lord’s, Kotak confirmed this aspect of Pant’s personality. When asked about the importance of batting partners not communicating with Pant during play, Kotak explained, “Rishabh actually talks a lot about what he does, when he does [it], why he does [it]. To me, he’s spoken, but he’s someone who doesn’t like talking too much during his innings because he feels that that changes his mindset, and he takes the wrong decision. That’s only when he’s batting.”
Beyond his time at the crease, Kotak highlighted Pant’s analytical mind: “Apart from that, he talks about other batters also, about himself also, and he does [properly plan] what he wants to do because it’s not so easy to score Test hundreds or not so easy to be successful at this level without having any planning.”
Planning Behind the “Maverick” Play
Kotak emphasized that despite Pant’s seemingly spontaneous movements, there is considerable thought and planning behind each action. While happy to have such a “maverick” in the line-up, Kotak generally urges batters not to be overly eager to score runs – a habit that might have developed from playing on extremely bowling-friendly pitches in recent years.
“If a batter thinks there is a lot of movement in the pitch, and if there is [half] an opportunity I have to score boundaries because there is a good ball coming [anyway], that is a bad mindset for red-ball cricket,” Kotak stated. He believes that due to their white-ball skills, Indian batters possess the ability to convert good deliveries into boundaries without actively “searching for runs.”
Kotak clarified that this philosophy was not a post-Headingley Test instruction but his general approach before the series. “We have batted well in both the matches,” he said. “I feel we have such skilful batters [who] can score at four an over without going searching for runs. What else is aggressive batting? We are scoring 360 in 90 overs. But our mindset now is to not go looking for boundaries.”
This refined approach could pose further challenges for England, who relied on boundary-catching dismissals to regain control in both of India’s innings at Headingley. In the second Test at Edgbaston, captain Shubman Gill led by example, compiling a monumental 430 runs in the match, refusing to play a casual shot and effectively batting England out of the game.
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