Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant are not just two very exciting left-handers who love to take the attack to the opposition but they are also prime entertainers with their mannerisms. Pant definitely. Jaiswal, maybe not as chirpy as Pant but his Gen Z attitude is box office nonetheless. When both of them were tasked to bail India out of trouble on an unusually seamer-friendly Chidambaram track on Day 1 of the first Test against Bangladesh, they brought both sides to the forefront.
After India lost captain Rohit Sharma, No.3 Shubman Gill, and star batter Virat Kohli in quick succession in the first hour of play to Bangladesh pacer Hasan Mahmood, Jaiswal and Pant brought out their A-game to take India to Lunch without further damage.
They were patient enough to wait for the bad balls, and the delightful strokes followed whenever they got them. The good thing about both Pant and Jaiswal is that there are no half-measures. They are never far away from a boundary, even in tough conditions.
Pant and Jaiswal’s dodgy running
However, the same can’t be said about their running between the wickets. There were at least two occasions when they got run out. The first instant was in the 12th over when Pant nonchalantly, as he often does, flicked a Hasan Mahmud in-coming delivery off his pads to get off the mark.
Pant thought the ball was racing away to the boundary, but he didn’t factor in the slightly slower outfield. The ball lost its steam before reaching the boundary. Pant realised it as soon as he completed the first run. He started making a dash for the second. Nahid Rana, who was chasing the ball to the midwicket boundary, fumbled while picking it up. This allowed Pant to look for the third run, which would have been a cakewalk had he and Jaiswal not jogged for the first run.
Seeing Pant, the senior partner, committed for the third run, Jaiswal had little choice but to oblige. The problem was that even Pant was struggling to reach his crease at the other end. Thankfully, for the India keeper-batter, who is making a comeback to Test cricket after nearly two years, the throw was to the keeper’s end. Jaiswal put in a dive and was just in. The look on his face said it all. He was in a state of shock, as was Pant. It was as if they didn’t expect this to pan out like this.
“Slip ho gaya yaar (I slipped),” Jaiswal told Pant in an apologetic tone as the duo got together in the middle of the wicket to have a chat.
“Both Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal didn’t know what to do. They were shocked,” said Dinesh Karthik in commentary.
The chat in the middle didn’t appear to be working that well as five balls later, they had another mix-up. Jaiswal needed another desperate dive to reach his crease. This time it was for a single. Now it was Pant’s turn to leave a polite enquiry. “Bach gaya thha na? (You were safe, right?)” he asked.
In between all the dodgy running, Pant and Jaiswal played some excellent strokes to take India to 88/3 at Lunch on Day 1 after they were reduced to 34/3 by Mahmud, who picked up all three wickets with the new ball.
