Aggression from outset mirrors approach taken by other young batters, including India’s Pant
Vithushan Ehantharajah09-Dec-2024England were still at the Basin Reserve on Sunday, celebrating a series win over New Zealand confirmed with a game to spare, when news came through of Australia’s victory over India across the Tasman sea.Both second Tests ran parallel, beginning on Friday and finishing within three days. But the day-night timings in Adelaide – two and a half hours behind New Zealand Daylight Time – meant there were a full two sessions on the go after stumps in Wellington.That worked a treat for England’s evenings. On days one and two, upon returning to their city-centre base at the Sofitel Hotel, players would bag a seat in the team room (a repurposed events room), get their room service or Deliveroo orders in and digest events at the Adelaide Oval.It was a productive way to decompress, with five-Test series to come against both India (at home) and Australia (away) in the space of 29 weeks from June 2025. Notes will have been made by an England team with new faces who have either never faced India, experienced an Ashes overseas or both. But the general mood was of players hooked on an edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy bubbling away nicely, with regular moments of awe.”I don’t know if you saw Rishabh Pant last night run down the pitch first ball,” Harry Brook told a collection of journalists, clutching the Player-of-the-Match award after 123 and 55 to help England clinch the inaugural Crowe-Thorpe Trophy.Related
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Pant, having come to the crease with India 66 for 3 in their second innings, immediately charged Scott Boland and launched him over mid-off for four. It was reminiscent of England’s approach to Boland in the 2023 Ashes, aggressively knocking him off his length and into a 115.50 average from two appearances.You can picture the scene. England players leaning forward and pointing at the TV, like that well-meme-ed clip of Leonardo Di Caprio from . But it was less about what they had done specifically to Boland, and more about the keeper-batter’s approach with India still trailing Australia’s first innings by 91.It was Pant being Pant, and the epitome of what Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes have tried to instil in their batters since they joined forces in the summer of 2022. Being brave enough to shoot your shots, even when the odds are against you.”To have that sort of courage to get off the mark first-ball is something that we’ve done exceptionally well over the last couple of years,” Brook said of Pant, before adding: “We say it all the time – we’re out there to score runs. We’re not there to survive.”It is a hell of a thing to say as a Test batter, but something the recently anointed No.2 in the world – the real No.1 in the eyes of the current leader of the ICC rankings, Joe Root – can get away with.Gung Ho has gone great for Brook so far. He averages 61.62 in 23 appearances, striking at 88.57 – a touch higher than the 86.80 for his 171 in the first Test, but nearly 20 shy of the 106.95 pace of his 123 in the second Test on Friday.He ranks the latter as the best of his eight hundreds, and you can understand why. Situationally crucial with England 26 for 3 on the first morning in seaming conditions, and staggeringly crisp from conception to execution.Rishabh Pant charges down the pitch to take on Australia’s bowlers•Getty ImagesScattered throughout the 115-ball innings were a series of solutions to problems endured by his team-mates (Ollie Pope, 66, was the only other batter to make it past 20). All effective but hard to replicate without Brook’s eye and hands.Nathan Smith’s bustle into the right-handers made him hard to clip around the corner, so Brook stepped away, skipped down and carted him over cover for six three times. Matt Henry’s disciplined lines offered hints of when and where to charge. Will O’Rourke’s extra pace and bounce meant extra oomph out of the middle of his bat.This wasn’t strictly Brook showing off. It looked too natural for that. But it did speak of a more noticeable shift across the board, of twenty-something batters looking at Test cricket’s precise – at times constricting – whims, and realising they don’t need to conform to belong.Standard Test-match tropes, such as watchful starts, need not apply to everyone, even (especially?) when a bowling attack has settled into a predictable groove, as both Pant and Brook have showed over the last few days, as well as the rest of their careers. Their current career strike-rates (74.73 and 88.57 respectively) are pretty much in keeping with how they start their innings – 70 and 82 for their first 20 balls faced.White-ball cricket has expanded repertoire and removed pretention. High elbows are still a thing – Brook’s is one of the highest – but hitting the ball in the air is no longer frowned upon. Aiming for the large expanses of green left free by traditional Test field placements has a whiff of “why didn’t people try this sooner?” Pre-meditation is no longer the sign of an absent mind but a clear one. All are cornerstones of Brook’s clumps over extra cover, or Pant’s much-adored tumbling reverse lap-sweep.”I think when you look at gaps (in the field) as well, you almost commit to a shot before the ball’s almost bowled,” Brook explained. “It probably works more in white-ball, but you kind of know that you’re going to target a space, and whether you play one shot or the other, you’re still trying to get it there – so fully committed to hitting in that area.”A lot of people are practising a lot of different things and practising certain shots. And you look at the field and think there’s a massive gap there, so let’s just try hit it there. There’s less risk of getting out, and I almost have that thought process myself.”Pant and Brook are noteworthy figureheads for the spate of twenty-somethings pushing the envelope in whites. Despite the large concentration of white-ball competitions in the Southern Hemisphere summer, a number are engaged with the red.Rachin Ravindra travels to Hamilton this week looking to cap off an impressive 2024. Yashasvi Jaiswal will spread the word of his impending legend status up in Queensland. Meanwhile, Kamindu Mendis and Tristan Stubbs are duking it out in South Africa.The horizons of Test match batting are broadening, and it is worth appreciating. Those at the vanguard are certainly appreciating one another.
