There's this really cool thing that legspinners do at the top of their mark. They give the ball a biiiiiig rip with one hand and - as it goes off on a loop, starting down low and surging up high - they keep in contact with it using the other, palm fully open. The most crucial part of this gimmick is they never look at the ball. Even though its in the wrong hand and is barely being held. Because they don't need to. It's bound to them. Eventually it'll end up where it needs to end up.
In the Delhi Premier League last month, Rishabh Pant began the 20th over of the chase with this routine. He put a lot of flight - maybe too much, it became a full toss - and got a lot of drift into the right-hander, presenting the opportunity for a simple tap to long-on for the match-winning single. This was day 596.
On December 30, 2022, Pant was in a car crash. It was a miracle that he survived. At the time, there was no telling if he would ever play cricket again. Now he isn't just back, he's got room in his life for new experiences.
But as fun as bowling in a T20 game might have been, there is something even better on the horizon and Pant's been working really hard for it. In fact, it was hard to pick out another player who spent as much time as he did out in the middle during India's three-hour training session on Monday in Chennai. He was everywhere, diving this way and that during a fielding session with the slip cordon. Facing Jasprit Bumrah on the main ground. Leaving it to go into the nets and take some throwdowns. Pausing - for barely a moment - to cool off in front of a giant, portable fan (temperatures in Chennai are approaching record levels for September). Going to the main ground again to face the spinners. It's almost like he's missed this.
Now usually when Pant is added to a mix that includes a bat, a ball and other people, there's a decent chance of shenanigans. Last week during the Duleep Trophy, he barged in on the opposition team's pre-game huddle, and after play got underway, demanded promises that they wouldn't score any runs. It was different here.
Three days out from the start of India's new Test season, he was on his best behaviour, getting tips from the head coach Gautam Gambhir, doing group studies with his wicketkeeping bro Dhruv Jurel. It wasn't until R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav were tossing the ball up or dragging them down that he went to his more recognisable shots, one of which travelled from the pitch on the furthest side of the square on the off side all the way to the wide long-on boundary.
Taking down spin is a big part of Pant's game. His cat-and-mouse battle with Nathan Lyon is up there among the best passages of play in modern-day Test cricket. An attacking batter who couldn't care less that the ball turning away from him meant he was at a disadvantage and a masterful spinner who didn't need anything but his stock ball to pose a threat, headlined the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2020-21. For the first four years of his career, Pant was keeping pace with Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara, who were India's best players in the format. And while it may be fanciful to expect him to reach those same heights immediately, it seems more likely that he will show his best form in red-ball cricket.
India have managed Pant very carefully and although he is yet to produce a big innings, there have been increasingly positive signs. Day 450 since the car crash. He made his first runs. Day 457. He scored his first fifty. Day 523. He returned to the Indian team. Day 538. He was world champion.
"It's a remarkable comeback, honestly," Ricky Ponting, who has worked very closely with Pant at Delhi Capitals, told Sky Sports. "If you can even see his leg now, and if you listen to the stories he tells about what he confronted when he woke up on the side of the road having been thrown out of his car 40m up the road at 200kph, I mean…
"Even just thinking about the mental side of coming back [is hard], but physical side of it, the rehab he went through. I didn't think he'd play last year's IPL and that's why I was on the phone with him because we had the auction coming up and we needed to know what to do. Right from 12 months before that, he said don't worry about me. I'll guarantee you I'll be right for the IPL and we thought okay, he'll be able to bat, we might have to manage him, use him as a Sub player. [Shakes head]. Kept every game, one of our leading run-scorers, batted No. 3 in the World Cup, part of the World Cup winning team. It's a remarkable comeback.
"You've all seen him play. You've heard him on the stump mic. He's an infectious character to have around the group. He loves his cricket. He's a winner. He doesn't just play to make a few runs and be out there for the fun of it. He must have four or five Test hundreds already and he's got about nine [six] 90s as well. You know, [MS] Dhoni played for, what 120 Tests [90] and made three of four [six] hundreds. This is how good this guy is."
And after 629 days, he's back.