“My father always thought I would become a cricketer,” said Rishabh Pant, in this interview to The Quint in February. “I started playing cricket only because of him.”

Pant lost his father to a heart attack on Friday. He rushed back to his home to perform his father’s late rites. Then he flew straight back to rejoin his team, the Delhi Daredevils, on Saturday. That, itself, takes immense mental strength but Pant went a step further. He played on the same day in the Daredevils’ first IPL match this season, against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

He could have easily chosen not to play. No one would have grudged him. This was a time for mourning. But Pant, the quintessential sportsman, left it aside to turn out for the team.

And he should have finished on the winning side. He carried an understandably expressionless face while fielding during Bangalore’s first innings. The emotions had all been bottled up. He came in to bat at No 5, perhaps too low in Delhi’s batting order, and skipped down the track to hit a six off the first ball he faced.

Around him, Delhi Daredevils played abysmal shots and gifted their wickets away. But Pant stayed solid and steady. He kept fighting. He wasn’t afraid to take on Shane Watson’s bouncer, swatting it away for a deep six. He absolutely nailed a full-blooded shot into Yuzvendra Chahal’s shin which resulted in the RCB leg-spinner going down. Pant walked over and picked him. Chahal gave him a wry grin. But there was no smile on Pant’s face, no hint of the storm that raged within.

Pant picks Chahal up. Image credit: IANS

There was no emotion even when he reached his fifty off 31 balls. Instead he just looked at the end of his bat and grimaced, knowing that he should have put the ball away. He was oblivious to the cheers from his teammates. There was no emotion from him even when Amit Mishra, with 19 needed off 9 balls, repeatedly flayed away at thin air and gifted the match to Bangalore.

The only little bit of emotion came after the first ball of the last over. With 19 needed, Pant had to do something big but lost his stumps when attempting a heave. He closed his eyes and looked up for a moment. And then walked off. At a snail’s pace. Slowly, ever so quietly.

Rishabh Pant walks off after his dismissal. Image credit: Prashant Bhoot/IPL/Sportzpics

“To play like that after going through a personal trauma was great,” said his captain Zaheer Khan. “The team is with him.”

But it was the Delhi Daredevils pacer Chris Morris who really summed up Pant’s valour in the post-match press conference.

“If my dad passed away, I’d be on the first plane out of here,” said the South African all-rounder. “It takes a big person to come a couple of days after his father has passed away. He’s going to be a big player for India in the future.”

“He said his dad would have wanted him to be play. [It] shows what a tough character he is,” added Morris.

A player’s worth in cricket, if they are a batsman, is usually measured in runs, boundaries or sixes. But there are those times when all that fades away and what you’re left with is character.

Even if Pant had been dismissed for a duck, it wouldn’t have taken away the grit and mental strength he had showed just to appear in this match. The fact that he single-handedly took his team so close showcased real character Like Tendulkar and Kohli before him, Pant on Saturday, proved why he is a special cricketer. Take a bow, champ.