Pujara and Pant in Australia - The cricketing equivalent of Muhammad Ali

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Muhammad Ali championed the art of taking every blow and biding his time to land the perfect knockout punch in a boxing ring. If ever there was a cricketing analogue of Ali’s boxing, it was India’s calculated final assault on the Aussie fortress in Brisbane.

For the second Test match in a row, when push came to shove, it was the rearguard action of Cheteshwar Pujara and the counterpunching of Rishabh Pant which concocted the perfect cocktail to throw the Australian bowling off their game plan. If Sydney was emotionally draining, Brisbane paid off one step better.

Cheteshwar Pujara’s resolve to take one body blow after the other, stare back with stoic, cold eyes, felt almost as if a parent figure was protecting the family. Like a father would typically accumulate a nest egg in an Indian family to allow his children to explore, in Pujara’s resilience, Pant found the freedom to bat his heart out. The counterpunch came. And when it landed, the Aussies had no answer.

It was perhaps kind of fitting that it needed a butterfly to distract and visibly put off Pujara. For his determination to absorb every blow without a flinch was Muhammad Ali’s butterfly. Rishabh Pant stung like a bee.