Pant flicks a ball from Potts for four to move to 80*. Unknown to him he has just become the youngest wicket-keeper to reach 2000 test runs. Coming in at 64/3 which soon became 98/5 some batters may have dug in. But Pant has never played that way and by the time he was finished he had smashed 146 of just 111 balls. India finished the day 338/7, over 100 more runs than expected according to CricViz.
Pant may be just 24 years old but he already threatening to be one of the greatest Wicket-Keeper batters of all time and could already be India’s greatest one.
Being a Test Wicket-keeper aged 24 is tough, not only do you have to bat well you also have to worry about your keeping. Despite this Pant has reached heights never reached before. He now has the most runs, tons and joint most 50+ scores for a Wicket keeper before turning 25.
As we can see no one is even close to this level of production at this age. In fact only four Indian batters overall had more runs before turning 25 and of them only Tendulkar averaged more than Pant’s 43.04.
Dhoni vs Pant
What makes Pant’s record even more impressive is how much of it has been away from Asia. In fact 73% of his Innings have been outside of Asia. Where he has 1427 runs at 37.55 with four tons. Every other Indian Wicket-keeper has combined for three.
This is especially where Dhoni’s record starts to look worse, while 1996 runs at 29.79 was until recently the best by some distance, Pant already looks to be passing him easily.
Of course it is difficult to compare the two, Dhoni never played in an Indian team that was as good as this one. However Dhoni also played his career in a much easier era for batting. From 2005-14 pace bowlers averaged 33.31, since Pant’s debut that has dropped to just 27.64.
Its clear Pant is the better of the two when it comes to batting, however at the moment Dhoni’s longer career and ability with the gloves puts him ahead. But I suspect this very soon won’t be enough.
And that perhaps is the most exciting thing about Pant, he hasn’t even reached what is usually the peak batting age for batters. There are so many records he could set and I would not be surprised if by the time he’s finished he’s rated as one of top Wicket-Keepers of all time.
And even as Ben Stokes gets closer to breaking the all time six record, it’s worth pointing out that Pant’s 48 test sixes are 33% more than any other batter has hit before turning 25.
The best surely, is yet to come.
Pant Mania
Great piece.
Thanks for keeping us informed as I'm glad to read about my favourite player.
Among Indian keeper/batters he quite clearly stands alone - other than Dhoni only Budhi Kunderan and Faroukh Engineer could claim to be near his level with the bat, and both those worthies were more batter than they were keeper. Based purely on keeping skills Syed Kirmani may have been Pant's superior but he habitually batted one place below Kapil Dev, a bowling all rounder, in the order.