Rishabh Pant has done some outrageous things on the cricket field and off it. They don't come close to coming out to bat - in all consciousness, possibly against medical advice, or at least despite being given the option not to do so - with a broken foot.
Surely, you felt, it was too outrageous even for him? This was not him coming out at No. 11 trying to draw a Test or something that desperate. This was 314 for 6, at a time when the ball was doing things both laterally and vertically, which led experts to believe India didn't need to be desperate, that they could get enough for these conditions even without Pant having to risk an even worse injury.
The sustaining of the injury was where you thought Pant's outrageousness ended: while playing a second reverse-sweep off a fast bowler in just a 48-ball stay. The irony of how extreme this sport is was laid bare in that one moment. Players have been complaining throughout the series about how the balls are going soft, and this was a slightly slower ball, and yet it did enough to break his foot.
It was plain to anyone who knows about or has ever experienced a bone injury. The egg-sized swelling immediately after the impact is often consistent with a fracture. The pain was so bad he couldn't even put his foot down, let alone impart any weight on it. Overnight, there were videos of him coming back from the hospital in a moonboot.
While the rest of the team went to the cricket ground on Thursday morning, Pant went to the hospital not for the first time in these two days. For what, though? There is no magic cure for a broken toe or a metatarsal. He likely went there to be further inspected. To be under specialist watch when he tries to walk. Desperate to be told he can bat.
Not long after, he was at the ground, still in a calf-high moonboot and using a crutch. India had lost a wicket early, but Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar looked like they were able to handle themselves. At certain points, looking at the movement available, it seemed like England might just be wasting it, looking pretty but not drawing enough edges.
Not much later, Pant was on TV cameras, in his whites, standing behind head coach Gautam Gambhir, his bottom half not visible. Surely not, you still thought. Why else would he come to the ground, though? Why wouldn't he rest up in his hotel room if he didn't want to bat?
Shardul Thakur on Pant's courageous innings and India's bowling effort
What were the plausible scenarios that Pant comes out to bat when they are 300 for 5 already? A collapse of 4 for 30, perhaps? Nope, at the fall of the next wicket. It made no sense at all at the time, but when has Pant done things that make sense to those watching from the outside?
In Sydney in 2020-21, Pant had injured his elbow badly enough to not be able to move his hand. He took painkillers, went to the nets, talked himself into believing his arm was not hurting, and practically promoted himself and smashed 97 in a session as India fought for a draw. Make that make sense.
Or his comeback from his horrible accident that beat every timeline given to Pant. Who are we to tell him what is good for him after what he has been through to come this far?
It was likely left up to Pant to decide whether he wanted to bat. No team management in their right minds will do otherwise. Some might consider calling in reinforcements to restrain Pant from going out to bat, though.
Pant's health and well-being is one thing; equally, it didn't make sense in the context of the match. India still had a recognised batter at the other end. Wouldn't Pant, who couldn't even put his foot down not long ago, result in losing out on many singles? And perhaps the flow in Washington's batting.
Then Pant even started hobbling the singles. He took 14 of them during his extended stay at the wicket. At the end of the opening day, England spinner Liam Dawson, who had seen the pain Pant was in, said he couldn't see a way Pant could play any part in the rest of the game. Once England recovered from the initial shock of first seeing Pant come out and then seeing him take his singles, they did what competitive teams would do: work on his injury by either bowling wide or aiming at the toe again.
Another impact on an already broken toe would have been catastrophic, but somehow Pant kept avoiding it. One ball came perilously close, but bounced just in front of his boot and bounced into the bottom of his pad. Until then, he had not even given thought to take his front foot out of the way to protect himself.
There is only so much painkiller you can give a human, let one who is going out to face Test-level fast bowling and needs his wits about him. In that mad mix of pain and painkillers, into a mad extension of a mad innings, Pant was good enough to pick a Jofra Archer slower ball and pull it for a six. To block a wide full ball in a way that it flew off the bat for four to bring up a fifty. Pant made Archer produce a replica of the absolute seed he bowled at him at Lord's: angling in from around the wicket and then seaming away to hit the top of off.
An outrageous, reckless shot by a brave and outrageously talented batter had resulted in the original fracture, and Pant went on to continue batting, which was perhaps more reckless and outrageous, but also braver and more skilled than he had ever been.