India, July 24 -- Rishabh Pant has stared the afterlife in the face and lived to tell the tale, so he knows a thing or two about pain. To see him in so much discomfort on the cricket field isn't rare, either. Why, just a fortnight ago, he was forced to leave the ground after taking a severe blow to the tip of his left index finger while trying to gather a Jasprit Bumrah delivery that swung wickedly after passing the stumps on day one of the Lord's Test, an injury that prevented him from donning the big gloves for the rest of the match.

Pant's place in the Indian scheme of things needs no reiteration. India need him as their stumper, of course. Shubman Gill relies heavily on him for angles when it comes to field placements and for DRS cal...