Rishabh Pant, sometimes known as the Miracle Man, is rapidly becoming one of the best wicketkeeper-batters in Test cricket. Is it fair to compare him to MS Dhoni at this early stage in his career, though? Take a close look at the lives of these two superstar Indians.
After 634 days, Rishabh Pant made a comeback to his favorite format of cricket, Test matches, and he appeared to have never left. In the Chennai Test match against Bangladesh, a youthful Hasan Mahmud had dismissed Rohit Sharma (6), Virat Kohli (6), and Shubman Gill (0). India really needed the 26-year-old to score heavily in the opening innings.
Pant made a rare knock in his debut, using his cool head at the crease to score 39 valiant runs in the cloudy surroundings. But after he poked at a ball from Mahmud outside the off stump, he was unable to put the team in a dominant position and was forced to retreat back to the pavilion.
Pant was at his best in the second innings, coming out with a determined plan to crush the opposition. On Day 2, he got off to a quick start with his innings and returned on 12* (13). Pant continued to play cautiously on Day 3, reaching his fifty off 88 balls.
Vintage Pants is back!
But when he saw how dominant India was, he went into beast mode against the Bangladeshi spinners, smashing their heads with an old-fashioned Pant as it came down the track. The daring wicketkeeper soon displayed his signature one-handed six, daring scoops over fine leg, and reckless hoicks, and he looked as good as ever.
The Chepauk crowd was thus treated to the longest format action of perhaps India’s best wicketkeeper batter. With six hundreds to his credit, Pant’s thunderous 109 enabled him tie his idol, MS Dhoni, for the joint record for most centurion wicketkeepers in Test history.
Comparisons between Dhoni and his student have been made ever since Pant began making waves. If Pant is already the best Indian wicketkeeper-batter in Test cricket, then questions are being raised. After 34 matches, Pant has now tied Dhoni for the most hundreds in the history of the game. What’s even more amazing about Pant’s achievement is that four of his centuries have come from outside of India.
The events that impacted Pant’s Test career
Pant’s stature in Test cricket is evident from his scores of 146 in Birmingham, 159* in Sydney, 100* in Cape Town, and 114 at the Oval. His career-changing hits have catapulted him to become the top wicketkeeper-batter in the traditional format since his debut in just six years of play. His match-winning 89* against Australia, which helped India win their second straight series in Australia, adds another century to his record of six hundreds. India was also the first side to breach the Gabba stronghold in over thirty-two years.
The second-best Test batter of his era is Dhoni
Although Dhoni is regarded as the best wicketkeeper batsman to have come out of India in the short overs format, his performance in Test cricket does not reflect this. This beloved ‘Mahi’ has done very well for himself as a wicketkeeper hitter, amassing 4876 runs from 90 matches at an average of 38.09, with six hundreds and thirty-three fifties.
Only one wicketkeeper, England’s Matthew Prior, has a higher average than the former captain of India between Dhoni’s debut and his retirement from Test cricket. Prior averaged 40.18 with 4099 runs in 79 matches.
The fact that Dhoni never scored a SENA hundred is the sole stain on his record as a Test wicketkeeper batsman. His heroic knocks of 90 in Centurion 2010, 82 at the Oval in 2014 (the second-best score from the squad was 18), and courageous 76, 77, 74 *in England, all helped India save face during embarrassing collapses, however, are overshadowed by this fact. The fact that Dhoni’s averages in England and New Zealand are 37.04 and 54.40, respectively, shows his ability to play with calculated aggressiveness in swinging conditions.
With 224 against Australia in Chennai in 2013, the former captain of India also owns the record for the highest score by an Indian wicketkeeper in a Test match. Because of this, Dhoni has several heroic innings in Test conditions and has helped the side recover from collapses on multiple occasions, even if Pant has impressive hundreds to his name.
Who is the better keeper, Dhoni or Pant?
Dhoni ranks 7th in terms of dismissals in the longest format (294), which includes 256 catches and 38 stumpings, when it comes to keeping. However, with 134 dismissals under his belt thus far in Test cricket, Pant stands as India’s third most successful wicketkeeper. Pant hasn’t always maintained his space behind the stumps. In fact, it took him some time to replace Wriddhiman Saha in home circumstances because the Indian team management felt that Saha, one of the best glovemen, would perform better in conditions that were spin-friendly.
Therefore, Pant still has a long way to go until his glovework reaches Dhoni’s level. Nevertheless, the young player has set himself up to meet his idol’s expectations in the gloves, having greatly improved his level of fitness throughout his rehabilitation.
In terms of batting, Pant is carving out a legacy for himself and steadily laying claim to the title of greatest wicketkeeper batsman in the history of the game, which may prove to be a difficult feat for succeeding generations to achieve. It will take time to see if he succeeds, but Test cricket fans will continue to be entertained for many years by the daring, fearless, and unapologetically Rishabh Pant style of batting.
