Pant’s blitz and Test cricket on warp-speed at SCG

Pant's blitz and Test cricket on warp-speed at SCG

Was it Rishabh Pant acknowledging that the SCG pitch was untenable to survive on? Was it Rishabh Pant realising that rapid runs was the only way out for India? Was it Rishabh Pant enjoying the license handed to him by his coach? Was it Rishabh Pant creating his own approach to create his own license in the middle? Was it just Rishabh Pant simply being Rishabh Pant?

Whatever it was, it was manic. It was mad. It was off the hook. Either Test cricket had lost the plot, or Pant had. Maybe it was those watching. Maybe it was everyone else playing the game.

Four years ago, he'd left these shores as a bonafide superstar who played Test cricket on his own terms. Twenty-four hours ago, he'd been a shadow of himself, despite top-scoring for India in a low-scoring first innings. Pant had scored at a strike-rate of around 40. Here, he was scoring at 140 or more. He'd walked in at the fall of Virat Kohli's wicket, poking at a Scott Boland delivery that deviated away from him for the umpteenth time in this series. And responded by jumping out of his crease to the irrepressible Boland before launching him over the long-on boundary for a six. It was the perfect statement piece to what would end up being a statement knock, that would be ended by Pat Cummins on 61 off 33 balls.

This wasn't the Pant of old. This wasn't probably the Pant of the future either. This was Pant of the present. Pant who had decided to put on a show in his final innings on tour, while also trying to motor India along to a lead that could challenge Australia on a pitch that's only going to get trickier.

Pant's incredible assault included some outrageous shots. There was the slog-sweep off Mitchell Starc, to follow up on a similar shot he pulled off of Beau Webster, and a similar shot off Australia's left-arm enforcer. At one point he looked like breaking his own record for the fastest Test half-century by an Indian batter. At one point he looked like making a century in a session. Only to be snuffed out by Cummins, who broke into a little jig after taking a wicket that could define the future of this Test and series.

In a way, the Pant mania was symbolic of another ridiculous day of Test cricket, which saw 15 wickets fall and over 300 runs get scored. Test cricket on warp-speed.