Rishabh Pant has done some outrageous things on the cricket field and off it. They don’t come close to coming out to bat – in all consciousness, possibly against medical advice, or at least despite being given the option not to do so – with a broken foot. Surely, you felt, it was too outrageous even for him This was not Rishabh Pant coming out at No. 11 trying to draw a Test or something that desperate.
This was 314 for 6, at a time when the ball was doing things both laterally and vertically, which led experts to believe India didn’t need to be desperate, that they could get enough for these conditions even without Rishabh Pant having to risk an even worse injury.
Rishabh Pant has done the audacious, the ridiculous, and the unforgettable often enough for it to no longer surprise. At Lord’s in the 3rd Test Rishabh Pant batted with a damaged finger and nearly dragged India back with a gutsy 74 before a run-out cut him short. At the SCG in 2021, he played through a bruised elbow to score a match-saving 97.
But what he did in Manchester may have topped them all. On Day 1, Rishabh Pant under-edged a reverse-sweep off a fast bowler onto his own foot, fracturing a bone, and still returned the next day to complete one of the most remarkable half-centuries in Test cricket.
India were 314 for 6 at 12:28 PM on Thursday (July 24) when the sixth wicket fell. It was a good total under heavy skies, the ball still hooping around corners. The match wasn’t in crisis. And yet, Old Trafford rose in applause when Rishabh Pant emerged from the pavilion, limping down the stairs toward the middle.
Rishabh Pant got injured on Day 1 at Manchester batting on 37
The fourth Test between India and England at Manchester saw Rishabh Pant’s courageous return to the field. Despite suffering a fractured toe on Day 1, the Indian wicketkeeper-batter walked out to bat on Day 2, limping in pain.It was a display of heart, grit and commitment to the team. The crowd at Old Trafford rose in applause, but it was the reaction from former cricketers that truly underlined the magnitude of Pant’s act.
Rishabh Pant’s injury occurred late on Day 1 of the Manchester Test, during the 68th over of India’s innings, when he tried a reverse sweep off Chris Woakes. The ball struck his right foot hard after an inside edge, and he collapsed in visible agony. Reports later confirmed a fracture on his fifth metatarsal, with swelling the size of a table tennis ball. He had to be taken off the field in a cart and was ruled out for wicketkeeping duties.
But by the time Shardul Thakur was dismissed on Day 2, Rishabh Pant stunned the crowd by slowly walking out to bat again. He received a standing ovation at Old Trafford, and the crowd’s cheer was matched by online support from Indian greats.
No injury stopped Maverick Rishabh Pant to score a memorable 54 at Manchester
Rishabh Pant hadn’t arrived at the ground with the Indian team in the morning. He’d gone to the hospital to assess if he could bat. Rishabh Pant came back wearing a moon boot and leaning on a crutch. Not long after, he was spotted in India whites. Surely, he wasn’t thinking of resuming his knock on 37, one abruptly halted the previous day by searing pain and an immediate swelling that pointed at a fracture.
But Rishabh Pant had made up his mind. There was risk. The injury could worsen. Another blow could be far more serious. Sure enough, one delivery spat up awkwardly, bounced short of his boot, and thudded into his pad. Only then did he start shifting his front foot out of the way. Until then, he hadn’t even bothered.
Rishabh Pant’s health and well-being is one thing; equally, it didn’t make sense in the context of the match. India still had a recognised batter at the other end. Wouldn’t Rishabh Pant, who couldn’t even put his foot down not long ago, result in losing out on many singles And perhaps the flow in Washington’s batting.
Then Rishabh Pant even started hobbling the singles. He took 14 of them during his extended stay at the wicket. At the end of the opening day, England spinner Liam Dawson, who had seen the pain Rishabh Pant was in, said he couldn’t see a way Pant could play any part in the rest of the game. Once England recovered from the initial shock of first seeing Rishabh Pant come out and then seeing him take his singles, they did what competitive teams would do: work on his injury by either bowling wide or aiming at the toe again.
Rishabh Pant couldn’t put weight on his right leg. And yet he ran, or rather, hobbled, 14 singles – both for himself and his partner. England tried to make life harder: they started bowling wide, then Stokes tested him with inswingers tailing in dangerously close to the boot. Still, Pant hung in there. He picked up a slower ball from Archer and launched it over the rope, drawing level with Virender Sehwag for most sixes (90) in Tests by an Indian. Then came the punchiest moment of all: a check drive off Stokes, through extra cover for four to reach his fifty.
There is only so much painkiller you can give a human, let one who is going out to face Test-level fast bowling and needs his wits about him. In that mad mix of pain and painkillers, into a mad extension of a mad innings, Rishabh Pant was good enough to pick a Jofra Archer slower ball and pull it for a six. To block a wide full ball in a way that it flew off the bat for four to bring up a fifty. Pant made Archer produce a replica of the absolute seed he bowled at him at Lord’s: angling in from around the wicket and then seaming away to hit the top of off.
Eventually, it took a brute from Archer to end the innings, angled in from wide of the crease and straightening past Pant’s outside edge to send the off-stump cartwheeling. At 2.08 PM, he began hobbling back to another rousing ovation from the crowd and pats on the back from Joe Root and Brydon Carse. He’d finished with 54 off 75 balls, 17 of those runs scored after the fracture.
It was a display of heart, grit and commitment to the team. The crowd at Old Trafford rose in applause, but it was the reaction from former cricketers that truly underlined the magnitude of Rishabh Pant’s act. Rishabh Pant’s companion in the team Karun Nair couldn’t mince his words calling this man a mad genious and was in awe of his enthralling courage,grit and determination.Acording to Karun Nair , Rishabh Pant batting with a fractured toe was highlight of the England series.
Karun Nair hails Rishabh Pant’s dare devilry act to bat with a fractured toe in the 4th Test as the highlight of the series
Team India batter Karun Nair picked Rishabh Pant walking out to bat injured in Manchester as the moment of the Test series against England. With India trailing 1-2 in the best of five match series , the wicket-keeper batter got himself set on 37 in the first innings in Manchester. However, he missed a a full delivery from Chris Woakes and injured his toe, forcing hom to retire hurt. Overnight scans confirmed a fractured toe, ruling Rishabh Pant out of the rest of the series.
Yet, the southpaw walked back out to bat the following morning and added crucial 17 runs tothe team total. Recalling that moment after a week of the series in conversation with ESPNCricinfo, Karun Nair said :
“To see Rishabh walk out to bat with a broken toe – it was one of the moments of the series. It was astonishing for everyone to see. It told you what a great player he is, and more importantly, the person he is. That kind of exemplified the philosophy of the team. Of putting everything first for the team, it’s not about individuals.”
It was a Bollywood-esque story of a comeback for Nair, who admitted to being completely broken after getting dropped in 2017. However, he scored only 205 runs, including one half-century in the first innings at the Oval. Questions were raised about his ability to be India’s long-term number three.
Sai Sudharsan is breathing down Nair’s throat at number three. The Tamil batter didn’t put up huge scores either, but looked better technically. Nair would hope that the team decides to give him another chance at home to showcase his potential. The next Test series is a two-match one against the West Indies from October 2.
Speaking of Rishabh Pant, he is reportedly ruled out of the impending Asia Cup and “possibly” for the home Test series against West Indies that follows, owing to the injury he incurred during the fourth Test match of the recently-concluded Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series against England in Manchester.
The 17th edition of the Asia Cup will be played between September 9 and 28 in the UAE. Less than a week after the conclusion of the continental tournament, the Test series against the West Indies will start. India will play only two Tests in that series, between October 2 and 14. The report added that Pant would not require any surgery.
India will start its campaign against UAE on September 10 and are likely to play all its matches in Dubai. India, Pakistan, UAE and Oman are clubbed in group A, while Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Hong Kong are in group B. This edition of the Asia Cup will be held in T20 format as is the convention with the next ICC global meet being T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
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