IND vs ENG, 2nd Test: Calm captain, fidgety deputy make for potent combo

Birmingham: Days after Rishabh Pant scripted the famous heist at the Gabba back in 2021, Shubman Gill had said Pant was his “hero” in the Indian team. Gill had himself set up the fascinating chase with a well-made 91 while opening the batting.Four and a half years later, Gill is India’s Test captain and Pant is his deputy. They are still like two peas in a pod. It shows when they bat in a partnership. The conversations often go deep, never mind their fun-loving public personas.

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They batted together for the first time in a Test against Bangladesh in Chennai last Sept, following Pant’s return from injury after the car accident. They put on an imperious 167-run partnership.

Here in England, they put together a double-hundred stand in Headingley in the last Test before Saturday’s 110-run partnership.Pant appears to be the restless one while Gill exudes calm. The game usually moves very fast when the flamboyant Pant is batting. The chemistry between the two is unmissable. The three big partnerships they have put on, out of the four times that they have batted together, has not only deflated opponents but ensured the two are fast becoming the most important pillars of India’s Test batting.

Pant went about counterattacking at Edgbaston on Day Four at Edgbaston, while the runs flowed from Gill’s bat in a steady flow. England often resorted to bizarre field settings in a bid to disturb their rhythm, but to no avail.Gill’s constant chats helped regulate Pant’s adrenaline rush. When Ben Stokes went about adjusting the field after nearly every ball, the duo kept alerting each other. Fifteen minutes before lunch, Pant missed a swat towards square-leg off a flat delivery from Shoaib Bashir.

He looked up at Gill and declared that he wasn’t going to play that shot again.When Pant suffered the lifethreatening car crash in Dec 2022, Gill was busy with international cricket. A member of Gill’s family, however, was sent to stay in a hotel next to the hospital in Dehradun where Pant had been admitted. Their care for each other reflects even when they are fielding.As long as Pant was at the crease, Gill didn’t mind playing unconventional cricket to beat the field set for short-pitched bowling.Ravi Shastri, India’s head coach during the 2021 Gabba Test, recounted how Pant and Gill made their own plans on the final day of that Test. “I was walking past them in the dressing room, I overheard them discussing how they would approach the different stages of the game. They had their own plans for the new ball and old ball. They only discussed how they could win. I didn’t interject because their minds were ticking. It was best to let them be.

They were focused on winning,” Shastri said on air.