On one foot: Rishabh Pant’s grit-fuelled fifty lights up crowd at Old Trafford

Rishabh Pant walked out to bat injured. (BCCI Photo)

It is one thing to come out on one foot and be the support cast. Help Washington Sundar get India close to 350. And a completely different thing to take control and take the team to a score they believed could challenge England. And in the process complete his own fifty, a half century that is worth more than a few centuries combined.

Take the shot that got him to his fifty. Stokes, who yet again bowled beautifully and picked up a fifer, had deliberately bowled it wide to Pant. He wanted Rishabh to reach the ball knowing he was finding it impossible to move his feet. The idea was right. So was the plan. Only the batter was Rishabh Pant. He defies odds and writes his own script. Somehow, and I don’t know how, he reached out to the ball and literally caressed it all along the ground. It just raced away giving the deep fielder no chance.

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An otherwise stoic press box was on their feet. No one could have understood that the timing would take the ball beyond the boundary in no time. But that’s how good it was. As the ball went past the fence, the press box stood up to applaud. Pant has scored many fifties in his life. And will score many more for sure. But then this was special. A fifty that will forever define his legacy. Each one of us who witnessed it live will live to tell the tale. It was pure cinema and the truth is it wasn’t reel. It was real and happened in front of our eyes. Manchester was richer for it and so was the sport.

There are some things in sport that become cult. Some efforts forever stay on in public memory and are immortalised. They go beyond a win or a loss and turn into human stories. Rishabh Pant at Old Trafford was one such. That someone could hobble to bat after coming into the ground in a moon boot is unthinkable. And yet that’s what happened. It was an act of courage and grit that has added gloss to the series and made it memorable for everyone who watched it.

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India is not in the best position in the game. England has taken control with the bat and are calling the shots. India needs inspiration if they have to stay in the contest and keep things alive. That’s where Rishabh turns relevant again. All Shubman Gill and his boys need to do is see inside the dressing room. They will see effort and super human effort. It is enough motivation to stage a comeback.