Pant's blitz and Test cricket on warp-speed at SCG

Was it Rishabh Pant acknowledging that the SCG pitch was untenable to survive on? Was it Rishabh Pant realising that rapid runs was the only way out for India? Was it Rishabh Pant enjoying the license handed to him by his coach? Was it Rishabh Pant creating his own approach to create his own license in the middle? Was it just Rishabh Pant simply being Rishabh Pant?

Whatever it was, it was manic. It was mad. It was off the hook. Either Test cricket had lost the plot, or Pant had. Maybe it was those watching. Maybe it was everyone else playing the game.

Perhaps Pant was providing a blueprint to every other batter who'd take strike in Sydney for the reminder of the match. Maybe Pant was just paving his own path on a pitch that had played tricks and made batting difficult. Maybe he was just making a statement. To his dressing-room, to the opposition, to the Australian public, maybe just to himself.

Four years ago, he'd left these shores as a bonafide superstar who played Test cricket on his own terms. Twenty-four hours ago, he'd been a shadow of himself, despite top-scoring for India in a low-scoring first innings. Pant had scored at a strike-rate of around 40. Here, he was scoring at 140 or more. He'd walked in at the fall of Virat Kohli's wicket, poking at a Scott Boland delivery that deviated away from him for the umpteenth time in this series. And responded by jumping out of his crease to the irrepressible Boland before launching him over the long-on boundary for a six. It was the perfect statement piece to what would end up being a statement knock, that would be ended by Pat Cummins on 61 off 33 balls.

This wasn't the Pant of old. This wasn't probably the Pant of the future either. This was Pant of the present. Pant who had decided to put on a show in his final innings on tour, while also trying to motor India along to a lead that could challenge Australia on a pitch that's only going to get trickier. With new type of grass and all. With all sorts of cracks and all.

Pant's incredible assault included some outrageous shots. There was the slog-sweep off Mitchell Starc, to follow up on a similar shot he pulled off of Beau Webster, and a similar shot off Australia's left-arm enforcer. At one point he looked like breaking his own record for the fastest Test half-century by an Indian batter. At one point he looked like making a century in a session. Only to be snuffed out by Cummins, who broke into a little jig after taking a wicket that could define the future of this Test and series.

In a way, the Pant mania was symbolic of another ridiculous day of Test cricket, which saw 15 wickets fall and over 300 runs get scored. Test cricket on warp-speed.

Blink and miss Test cricket for large parts of the day. We saw Jasprit Bumrah impose himself to kick off the day, before Mohammad Siraj played his role. We saw Steve Smith fall 5 runs short of going past 10,000 Test runs after batting like a dream. There was a Test debut half-century for Webster, who overall looked the most competent batter in terms of handling the challenging conditions put forth by the grassy SCG surface. There was Virat Kohli's final Test innings on Australian soil.

The end of a 14-year-long affair with a country where Kohli has at times looked more at home than his own. Unfortunately for him, it came in an all-too-familiar fashion. The stage had seemed set for a Kohli special. Once Bumrah left the field and the stadium, Kohli had taken over as the leader on the field. He'd enjoyed it to the fullest too. It was like the old days' again. The talisman of the Indian team leading the way, and setting the tone.

And he walked out to bat with the same intensity, his bat resting over his shoulder, like he was ready to go to battle against his longstanding arch rivals. To produce a final masterpiece in a country that has both adopted him and abhorred him in equal measure.

Chest puffed out. Eyes glaring. This looked like vintage Kohli. But sadly, he didn't quite end up batting like vintage Kohli. There was a fearsome pull-shot off a short of length Boland delivery. But that was it. Next over, his hands betrayed him for the umpteenth time, and he was caught easily in the slip cordon off his late-career nemesis, Scott Boland. Kohli ending his final Test tour of Australia with an average of 23 across five Tests, with less than 200 runs in his tally, despite having scored a ton in the second innings of the first Test.

Elsewhere, there were special deliveries like the one Bumrah bowled to get rid of Marnus Labuschagne early in the piece or Boland produced to knock over Yashasvi Jaiswal late in the day. An assortment of outrageous shots, courtesy Pant. A classy debut knock from Webster. And a Test match that stands on tenterhooks. Just like the Border-Gavaskar Trophy does.

All four results will be on the cards as one of the most unpredictable Test series in recent memory reaches its climax. And like the intrigue we witnessed on Day 2, it'll come down to how the outcome of the following questions play out?

Do India have enough runs to defend? Will they end up with a score where they do? Will Bumrah be fit to bowl? Will the Australian batters find some form in their final innings of the summer? Will Smith get to 10,000 Test runs? Will Sam Konstas do a Pant, especially after he was spotted picking up his kindred spirit's bat and shadow-practicing a couple of outrageous shots that only the two of them can bond over? Does this Test match and Test series have one final swerve?