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***Official*** India in South Africa 2021-22

Kirkut

International Regular
I love Afridi and think he's seriously underrated as a Test cricketer, but Pant has already accomplished more in his short career than Afridi ever did. The peak of Afridi's test batting was smashing around lackluster bowling attacks on flat pitches, mostly in Asia. Pant's already had match-winning, and in some cases series-defining, innings overseas and in tough conditions. An innings like today could have never come from Afridi.

Pant's very much comparable to Gilchrist imo. Gilly didn't make his FC debut till he was 21 and his Test debut till he was 28. Pant is only 24 and he's already got 3 Test tons and an average of 37. Don't think he'll end with a career average of 47 like Gilly did, but he could end up in close enough.

What's fascinating is how Gilly maintained a career SR of 82 in Tests. Pant, for all his madness, is only striking at 67.5!

Afridi's test SR was 86 heh. Average of 36 too, for those of you who forget. 5 100s in 27 Tests.
Nooooo, I wasn't comparing him with Afridi the test cricketer at all, but more like a test equivalent of the LOI version Afridi.
 

Calm_profit

State Vice-Captain
I love Afridi and think he's seriously underrated as a Test cricketer, but Pant has already accomplished more in his short career than Afridi ever did. The peak of Afridi's test batting was smashing around lackluster bowling attacks on flat pitches, mostly in Asia. Pant's already had match-winning, and in some cases series-defining, innings overseas and in tough conditions. An innings like today could have never come from Afridi.

Pant's very much comparable to Gilchrist imo. Gilly didn't make his FC debut till he was 21 and his Test debut till he was 28. Pant is only 24 and he's already got 3 Test tons and an average of 37. Don't think he'll end with a career average of 47 like Gilly did, but he could end up in close enough.

What's fascinating is how Gilly maintained a career SR of 82 in Tests. Pant, for all his madness, is only striking at 67.5!

Afridi's test SR was 86 heh. Average of 36 too, for those of you who forget. 5 100s in 27 Tests.
I heard from somewhere else that Afridi was interested in test cricket but selectors and Inzi who was captain at the time kept ignoring him.
 

Teja.

Global Moderator
Yeah Gilchrist was a one off. Its not a great comparison. I would be very very happy if he finishes his career in the high 30s/low 40s.
He is very young. If he has a full career at that 38-42 level while playing knocks like this, he will have a strong case for the second best keeper batsman after gilchrist ever since that started being a thing.

Dhoni and Prior are in that tier and Dhoni averages 30 outside Asia with no centuries while Prior didn’t have a very long career iirc.

Tbf, even Gilchrist debuted in his late 20s when he was a much more refined product than Pant but Gilchrist was a consistent beast for his first 5-6 years averaging around 60 @ 90 SR which is insane and not realistically replicable.
 

Kirkut

International Regular
That's an even worse comparison?
Nopes, when Afridi was in 'the zone' in ODIs his power hitting was unmatched, sure he hasn't played any ATG knock but I don't see Pant modelling himself into a more predictable consistent batsman, that would mess his natural game.
 

cnerd123

likes this
hahaha Pant's a maniac. You could put all 9 men on the fence and he'd still play these shots.

Fun when it's coming off.
 

trundler

Request Your Custom Title Now!
He is very young. If he has a full career at that 38-42 level while playing knocks like this, he will have a strong case for the second best keeper batsman after gilchrist ever since that started being a thing.

Dhoni and Prior are in that tier and Dhoni averages 30 outside Asia with no centuries while Prior didn’t have a very long career iirc.

Tbf, even Gilchrist debuted in his late 20s when he was a much more refined product than Pant but Gilchrist was a consistent beast for his first 5-6 years averaging around 60 @ 90 SR which is insane and not realistically replicable.
Watling ffs
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Not very happy about the first 6 he hit just before lunch, he seemed to be responding to very obvious bait from rvdD at short leg.
 

Teja.

Global Moderator
Jfc, this might be well on the way to be his best ever in terms of pure quality considering how difficult it was to bat when he came in. What an incredible innings.
 

karan_fromthestands

State Captain
He's like the test cricket version of Afridi.
Not at all. There's always a method to what he does, when the ball is coming on nicely, he tries to apply himself and when it's doing too much he tries to down the track too often to unsettle the bowlers. That's smart thinking IMO, he is aware of his limitations with the bat.

Afridi would go after every round shaped thing that came near him, Pant isn't like that.
 

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