Pant focused on road ahead after maiden triple-ton

"Aggressive nahi khelta main, natural game hai ye mera (I don't play aggressive, this is my natural game)," he says. "Ab kharaab ball aayegi to main maroonga (If I get a poor ball, I will go after it)."

Nineteen-year-old Rishabh Pant does not like labels attached to him. "Aggressive" is one of them. It does sound odd, though, because he struck a maiden triple-century - 308 off 326 balls - at the Wankhede Stadium, where a run-fest ended with Maharashtra taking home three points. Pant ended his innings with a blistering strike rate of 94.47, studded with 42 fours and nine sixes, and became the third-youngest Indian, and fourth-youngest overall, to score a first-class triple hundred.

"People asked me after the game if I knew how many records I had broken. I said, 'mujhe kaise pata hoga (how will I know)?'"

Pant's task was not an easy one. The pitch had worn down a bit on the third and fourth days, he did not have batting partners for long durations like Swapnil Gugale and Ankit Bawane did, and the scoreboard pressure of crossing 635 to earn a first-innings lead was not something he was used to. What helped Pant was the bit of vengeance that he came out to bat with.

"They made us field for two days, so we wanted to make them field for two days too," he says. "I had gone out to bat with the aim of getting us the first-innings lead and there is no problem of run rate with Delhi's batsmen. We wanted to bat for two entire days and we knew runs would come on their own.

"I didn't know initially so many runs would be scored. The pitch looked flat from the first day, and if there was anything for the bowlers, it had to be in the morning. We also wanted to bat first, but they won the toss. The pitch was flatter in the first innings, but it started to turn a bit when we batted."

Usually a top-order batsman, and an opener by preference, Pant batted at No. 5, and his job was made tougher when Delhi lost three wickets for 135 runs, still trailing by 500 runs. Pant forged two crucial partnerships - 124 with Dhruv Shorey for the fourth wicket and 117 with Milind Kumar for the fifth - but the onus of saving them on the last day fell on him as Milind was caught behind in the last over of the third day with Pant unbeaten on 155 and Delhi 376 for 5.

"I was the main batsman left after the third day, allrounders had started coming in," Pant recalls. "My aim was to get us first-innings lead somehow, that was the only thing on my mind, not my personal score. Individual score increases on its own when you keep batting, but once it started rising, I started feeling good. I had set myself a target of scoring at least one double-hundred this Ranji season, but while focusing on our team's aim, I scored a triple, and it feels great because I had never scored a double before at any level. I had scored a lot in 150s, but this is something else. It would have been better if we got a lead too."

A major change introduced by the BCCI to this year's tournament is the introduction of neutral venues for league matches, and Pant believes this change will help both teams since there won't be conditions heavily favouring one of the teams.

"Playing on neutral grounds is helping us, compared to home and away because conditions are neutral. They are either good for both teams or bad for both. You can see how I've scored more than 450 runs in two matches. Now, I want to score as much as I can in the remaining matches."

Even though he was playing only his fourth Ranji Trophy match, Pant has been known for his belligerent batting style for some time now. He made a name for himself in the Delhi club circuit one season after another while representing Sonnet Club, where he was coached by Tarak Sinha. He was soon drafted into Delhi's Under-19 squads, before being picked for the India Under-19 squad at the end of 2015 for the World Cup earlier this year.

He shone in Bangladesh by registering the fastest fifty in Under-19 cricket, in a knock of 78 off 24 against Nepal, and then hammered 111 off 96 balls in the next match - against Namibia in the quarter-final.

Records apart, Pant has also seen his share of struggles at an early age. He had to change cities and clubs several times in his early teens before settling down in Delhi, where competition for a place in the batting order never eases.

A few years later, he is now revelling in the achievement of a triple-hundred that he scored barely a week after his maiden first-class hundred - 146 against Assam in the first round. With his Ranji aim for this season also achieved in only two matches, what does he have his eyes on now?

"Disclose nahi karoonga main, nahi to fayda kya (what's the point of my aim if I disclose it to you)?" he says. "Jab complete hoga tab disclose karoonga (when I complete it, I will disclose it)."