Rishabh’s pants down moment?

Despite tremendous public criticism, Pant has never really made a misstep in his storied rollercoaster career so far. Was Friday night’s meltdown—despite the presence of many a cool Mumbai man around him—his first real boo-boo in the harshest circus of all?

A lot will be said about ball 19.3 in Friday night’s Indian Premier League match between the Delhi Capitals and the Rajasthan Royals. 

First, the ball. To the naked eye, as it happened, it did look high. The television commentators thought so, Cricinfo’s BBB commentator thought so, I thought so, you thought so. But the very first replay put paid to the misconceptions. It was a legit delivery. The replays showed: 1. Rovman Powell had taken a huge forward stride, bending his front leg and collapsing his rear knee, 2. the ball was already dipping in its trajectory, and 3. it was never going to be above waist-high if Powell had been standing upright at the crease, as the law requires.

Ump called it right 
Umpire Nitin Menon called it right. With the naked eye, albeit having the best seat in the house. Menon did his job. That should have been the end of story. Sadly for the game, and millions of youngsters watching it live across India, it wasn’t. (For the record, even had he been wrong, the Delhi dugout would still be wrong. Rishabh Pant’s fine and Pravin Amre’s ban will still be a joke). 

So, what came over Delhi skipper Pant? 
The images on TV clearly showed a headless chicken of a dugout—with Pant, Shane Watson, and Amre all scrambling. Which is understandable—after all, this was the third six in an all-six ask over. What was not understandable was this—there was not one calming head in that dugout. Everyone was aggravating the situation. Pant was adamant and petulant. Amre, a Mumbai cricket stalwart in his time and a well-respected and feared coach now, first tried to calm Pant down but quickly caved in to star power.

When that moment passed—and we could put that down to the heat of the moment—to what I assume would have been to the horror of well-meaning Mumbai cricket watchers, Amre, such a well-respected senior on the circuit, walked into the field! 
Thankfully, things cooled down enough for play to carry on. Rajasthan won the match in the remaining three balls, but the damage was done. 

Did Pant miss Ponting? 
Before all this drama was a full innings. An innings where Pant, the new Captain Cool, strangely, looked a different person all day. Was it down to Ricky Ponting not being around due to COVID? Anybody’s guess, but in hindsight, full props to the broadcasters, who did a great job capturing all those moments when Pant lost his cool throughout the Rajasthan innings—from the time Jos Buttler and Devdutt Padikkal cut loose after seeing off the powerplay, through their middle overs massacre, right till Sanju Samson finished off the innings powerfully. (While on finishes, Shardul Thakur, the other Mumbai man in the Delhi set-up, ended up bowling only three overs, despite giving away only nine in his first two).

Pant lost his cool with more than one bowler. When he lost it with the hero of the previous match Kuldeep Yadav, it was left to the calm of Khaleel Ahmed, who first reassured his captain that he would deliver the goods, and then came good, pinning Padikkal leg before. Then, when that very Khaleel shelled a sitter, it was the turn of Mustafizur Rahman to go up to his captain and reassure him that he would deliver a good over next up. The Fizz went for aplenty, but at least managed to calm down his skipper. Towards the end, it was left to the likes of David Warner to calm the players’ nerves. 

Leadership missing 
Over the years, Ponting has become the glue that holds this Delhi outfit together. And he clearly has groomed Pant, going by their public pronouncements. It is quite evident that Ponting commands absolute respect in this Delhi set-up, which is good, but on Friday night’s evidence, the entire machinery seems to be over-dependent on him.

The flip side of which came to fore at 19.3. The aftermath of that delivery seemed to hint that Ponting might have failed to groom a good second-rung leadership within his support staff. A bad look for a team whose CEO bosses it in every auction and has other teams tearing their hair out.

Ponting has a wealth of riches—Amre, Agarkar and Watson. But none of them seemed to step up and rein in the petulant skipper when it came to the crunch. 
When the ruckus broke out, one couldn’t help but wonder: What would Ponting have done?

There was Pant, gesticulating wildly; Amre, helpless. Then there was Watson. Watson feebly attempted to pipe down Pant, but seemed to give up. Here is when someone like Agarkar could have stepped in. But it didn’t seem to have happened.

In fact, the events of the last over were pre-shadowed by young Prithvi Shaw’s strange and staccato pre-match comments: “He [Ponting] is the boss of the team. If the boss isn’t here....but still Watson sir, Ajit Sir, Pravin Sir, Hopesy are here…”

If at all DC have an honest discussion about last night, it has got to start with finding a leadership structure among coaching staff under Ponting. Ideally, it would be Amre, but whoever it is, they need a clear deputy to Ponting in place.

Menon is the real deal 
Which brings us to the biggest positive of the night: Umpire Nitin Menon is ready for the big league. In all those minutes of mayhem, he was the only person who came off looking good.

Forget all his great work of the past two years. Not only did he get the original naked eye call bang on right, but he also handled the millionaire schoolboys with a very cool head. Menon, in fact, stood his ground with grace, much better than the senior umpires who were officiating when MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli had their respective meltdowns. Those umpires melted in front of the superstar petulance. Menon did not. 

Dhoni, Kohli to blame
Pant wouldn’t have done what he did last night if Dhoni and Kohli hadn’t lost their heads in previous editions and questioned the umpires. What happened on Friday night was a direct consequence of how Dhoni and Kohli bred disrespect all those months ago.

Dhoni, Kohli and Pant—even if they don’t come out and apologise—need to introspect. All three are still around in the playing field. They need to do something constructive right now. Else, tomorrow a Dhull or Hangargekar will do the same. 

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