How a move in IPL may help Rishabh Pant save his India spot

Rishabh Pant became the first Indian wicketkeeper and only the second in cricket history, after Andy Flower, to score two centuries in a Test match. The left-handed scored 134 in the first innings of the first Test between India and England at Headingley, Leeds, and then followed it up with 118 in the second innings on Monday.

The twin centuries come after a long failure on Indian cricket team's tour of Australia, where to be fair to him the pitches were difficult, and in the Indian Premier League (IPL) where he was bought as the most expensive player.

However, the success in Headingley could be credited to that single move in the IPL when he promoted himself to bat at No. 3 in the last match for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) against eventual champions Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). The franchise was already out of contention of playoffs by then and the main point of interest for LSG was to see their skipper return to form.

Pant scored 118 off 61 balls, facing half of the innings' balls and although RCB won that match by six wickets, successfully chasing the 228-run target, it brought the left-handed wicketkeeper-batsman to form and big scores.

"I had spoken to him before that IPL match and suggested that he bat at No. 3 and build innings," recalls Devender Sharma, the coach of Sonnet Club where Pant spent his formative years.

"This England tour was coming after failures in Australia and IPL. If he had failed here, he would have been axed from the India set-up entirely. So success was necessary here."

Pant is already not part of India's ODI and T20I set-up and a failure in England would have seen the India vice-captain probably lose the BCCI central contract in future as he would not have been part of any India line-up.

"We had discussed prior to this tour that he should bat patiently and leave balls. You will see that he has made a marked change in his approach. He was leaving the balls and playing cautiously. He waited for loose balls. The idea was to make a conscious effort to stay at the crease."

Pant had aggregated 255 runs in five Tests at 28.33 with just one half-century in Australia. He was heavily criticised Sunil Gavaskar in the commentary box, being called 'stupid' thrice when he got out to a poor shot on one occasion. That video of Gavaskar went viral.

Pant faces stiff competition from Noida boy Dhruv Jurel, who is also in the India squad and is known for his wicketkeeping skills and has also proved himself to be a Test-level batsman in the past.

Tags : Rishabh Pant, India vs England, Indian cricket team, Headingley, IPL, LSG, RCB, Dhruv Jurel