On Tuesday, Pant was at the centre of it all – having one-on-ones with his team, talking to the coaches, obliging security personnel and everyone else who wanted pictures, attending a press conference that had some elements of his irreverent humour. Then, after everyone had left, he and the coaches had an intense net session that lasted nearly an hour.
Rest of India batting coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla was giving him throw owns from a distance – to try and get him to play fully forward and drive and occasionally play straighter. Pant was falling over a couple of times while looking to flick, and quickly addressed that by starting his trigger movement from outside leg stump, to ensure he wasn’t getting too far across his stumps.
This was Pant fully focused on the ball, on his feet, on the sound the ball made off his bat. Every time he hit it off the middle, he thumped the centre of the blade, as if to say that was the sound he was after. And when he was fully happy with the work he’d put in, the shots he brings out from time to time – like the reverse scoop and the falling-over lap sweep – came out to top off the session.
Pant is now just a one-format regular for India. He’s lost his Test vice-captaincy, and has battled an identity crisis of sorts in ODIs. With KL Rahul India’s first-choice keeper in that format, it’s likely Pant may have had to sit on the bench even if he’d been picked in the squad that is currently playing a series against the West Indies. In that sense, it’s perhaps the best workaround to have him play a red-ball game with the Tests on the tour of New Zealand looming.
“For me, it’s very simple. Whatever is in front of me, I will give my best,” Pant said ahead of the Irani Cup in Srinagar. “That’s how I played cricket and I keep it very simple. So whatever opportunity I get, I try to make the best out of it. For me, every game is an opportunity. I want to give my best and I keep it very simple.”
Pant was last in action during the Test tour of Sri Lanka over a month ago. He’s coming to Srinagar on the back of a rare three-week break in which he has focused on rest and recuperation. He insists that he is in a mindspace free of worries over selection or form or fitness. For one, he looks visibly leaner from even a month ago – he laughed it off when someone pointed this out, saying his journey to leanness was nothing compared to Sarfaraz Khan’s.
“I try to give my best every time I take on the field. And that has been the key for me over a period of time,” Pant said. “Yes, there will be ups and downs. When you want to have to have an international career for 15-20 years, you have to go through all these things. So it’s that kind of mindset. And it’s very simple. Have the right people to guide you and just keep giving your best each and every time you take on the field.”
Much of this ‘keep it simple’ philosophy, Pant believes, came about during the time he spent away from the game recovering from multiple injuries he suffered in a car crash in December 2022. It cost him nearly 18 months of cricket, but the time away from the game allowed him to put life, and his career, into perspective.
“See, when you have gone through so much in your life, you understand, you know, keeping it simple is the key,” he said. “Obviously, when you’re playing for your country, working hard is not optional. You have to work hard, you have to be mentally strong, and you’ve got to keep on learning and keep on improving. And that’s the mindset you want to keep.
“Especially when you’re going through a long rehab, it’s always frustrating. But developing that mindset [not overthinking] is obviously challenging, but at the same time, you know, if you’re playing international cricket, you have to go through challenges.”
Shashank Kishore is a senior correspondent at Cricinfo