Rishabh Pant the wicketkeeper: A tremor of laughter erupted around Trent Bridge as Rishabh Pant the wicketkeeper charged Adil Rashid to deposit the second ball he faced in Test cricket high into the Pavilion on the first day of the Trent Bridge Test. With a six as his first scoring shot Pant had announced his arrival in Test cricket. In one stroke, he had autographed his style of play – a bold brush, bristling with energy and aggression. As a batsman, Pant will always remain that.
What about his second skill, the other half of his job – wicketkeeping? It will be fair to say Pant did not come out as unfinished a glovesman as many feared he might. He held seven catches – a joint record for a debutant – and generally looked competent.
Wicketkeeping in England is one of the most difficult jobs in cricket. The Dukes ball wobbles in the air as the keeper attempts to line it up. Another common sight on English pitches is the ball dying as it reaches the keeper. Consequently, wicketkeepers endlessly mark their spot behind the stumps, and each time they think the distance is perfect they are flattered to be deceived.
Then there is the challenge of the ball swinging late, well after it has passed the batsman, leaving the keeper wrong-footed and having to adjust hurriedly.
Suffice to say then then that Rishabh Pant the wicketkeeper, only 20 years old, would have been nervous keeping wickets in his debut Test, which India had to win to keep the series alive. He would commit some mistakes, none bigger than dropping Jos Buttler in England’s second innings, when Jasprit Bumrah’s unusual angle made him take a couple of steps to his left, only for the outside edge to force him to dive a long way in the opposite direction. Pant managed to get a sliver of his outstretched glove to the ball, but not enough of it to pouch the ball. Buttler was on 1 at the time, and he went on to make a century that did not deny India victory but delayed it substantially.
Rishabh Pant the wicketkeeper cannot be blamed entirely, though, for Bumrah’s release – from wide of the crease, with his arm going well beyond the vertical – can be as difficult for keepers to get used to as it is for batsmen.
“When Bumrah bowls he bowls with a different angle,” Rishabh Pant the wicketkeeper, said after India’s victory. “Sometimes you react to it. That day I reacted too much on that ball and the edge came off. I am not saying that it was a too difficult catch. I could have pulled it off.”
Despite being on debut, the conditions were not entirely alien to Pant. He arrived in England in early June as part of the India A squad for limited-overs and first-class matches against the England Lions and West Indies A. The wobbling ball was an immediate challenge, which he tried to sort out in training, working initially with the India A coaches and then with Dinesh Karthik, who played the first two Tests, and India fielding coach R Sridhar.
James Foster, the former England wicketkeeper, one of the most experienced and talented glovesmen around, says the wobbling ball can be a “shock to the system” of overseas wicketkeepers. Foster says it is not just the bowlers, but even the design of venues like Lord’s and Trent Bridge, that can cause ball to wobble. If the issue is not addressed correctly, it can mentally destabilise the wicketkeeper.
“It is the fact the ball will come to you and suddenly wobble,” Foster tells ESPNcricnfo. “It can be very tricky. Generally the ball does not wobble after it is nicked, but it has happened to me. Dealing with the wobble can affect you because as result you might get tense as a wicketkeeper because you are not sure how the ball is actually coming to you – in an arc or in a straight line. That can potentially have knock-on effects on how you keep for the rest of the innings or the day.”
Late on the fourth afternoon Rishabh Pant the wicketkeeper was rapped on the left hand when the second new ball zipped at a faster speed than he expected from Mohammed Shami. Pant was just getting into position and failed to collect cleanly, wincing as he folded his gloved left hand behind his back.
Foster, who plays for Essex, says the best way to confront the wobble is not to be “tense in your top half” – your mind. Foster likes to collect the ball waist-high, but that does mean he recommends it to everyone. He says the bounce can also be inconsistent in England.
“If the conditions are not good it does not bounce consistently through to you. In Australia the ball will continually be coming through. In England it can die quite a lot. Keeping to a wobbling ball, my advise is trust your eyes and trust your hands.”