India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant has taken the world by storm. Pant has been in staggering form since the start of last year and that has already ascended the 24-year-old in the pantheon of the greats to have played for India.
His match-winning performances with the bat, his impact-making ability where he influences or changes the game in a short period of time, his astonishing self-confidence, have seen him become a fan favourite.
Pant was always seen as the heir apparent to the legendary MS Dhoni, despite Wriddhiman Saha being there too. Pant had a ballistic start to his Test career with centuries on his first tours to England and Australia. He would be dropped from the side later on for his loss of form across formats, but made a brilliant comeback in the Sydney and Gabba Tests last year, followed by thunderous performances in the home Test against England.
Once again, his numbers took a dip on the England tour and the South Africa tour, before he picked it up with a stunning lone-handed century in Cape Town. He’s now become India’s first-choice keeper-batsman across formats.
This giant stride in the youngster’s short career that has already seen plenty of ups and down, begs for a comparison between the three great keepers India have had in the Test side in the past decade and more – Pant vs Dhoni vs Saha.
A Twitter user, Merin Kumar, made a statistical comparison between the trio when Dhoni and Saha had played their first 51 innings, the same amount as Pant had right now. And it concluded that, well, Pant is the more superior of the three; he’s already the only Asian wicket-keeper with Test hundreds in England, Australia, and South Africa.
At the 51 Test innings mark, Pant currently averages 40.85 with 4 centuries – three of which are outside Asia – and 9 fifties. At the same point in his career, that is 51 Test innings, MS Dhoni had averaged 35.86 with 1 hundred to his name, while Saha averaged 29.69 with three tons.
Not only Pant has left the two behind in terms of averages with the bat, also, despite being considered the worse of the three wicket-keepers, but Pant has also effected more dismissals, 118, with the gloves that Dhoni (88) and Saha (103) after 51 innings each in their respective Test careers.
After 51 Test innings
Dhoni
1614 runs
35.86 Ave
1/11 100s/50s
1 MoM/ 0 MoS
88 Catches+StumpingsSaha
1247 runs
29.69 Ave
3/5 100s/50s
1 MoM/ 0 MoS
103 Catches+StumpingsPant
1920 runs
40.85 Ave
4/9 100s/50s
2 MoM/ 1 MoS
118 Catches+Stumpings— Merin Kumar
(@merin_kumar) March 16, 2022
(@merin_kumar) By the end of his career, MS Dhoni finished with an average of 38.09 after 90 Tests. Given the start he’s had, Rishabh Pant is expected to overhaul Dhoni’s batting legacy at least in Test cricket when he hangs his boots.
