A week after participating in one of Test cricket’s most enthralling series, Australia spinner Nathan Lyon posted a picture of the autographed jersey he was presented by the India team, thanking Ajinkya Rahane’s side for the “kind gesture”.
While the gesture after Lyon’s 100th Test was met with mixed responses, Lyon’s posted picture was enough to set social media buzzing, with fans trying to dissect each player signature. Autographs have been an integral part of the sport for decades, and while none of us are expert graphologists, the collective pool of signatures from the Indian team did make for interesting viewing.
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A wonderful gesture from the Indian side.🇮🇳
Presenting Nathan Lyon with a signed shirt for his 1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣th Test.👏#9WWOS #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/VlJ2J7OUpB
— Wide World of Sports (@wwos) January 19, 2021
At first, what sticks out is the small smiley faces below the signatures of Rishabh Pant and Mayank Agarwal. Pant’s signature, in particular, garnered plenty of responses; many felt it perfectly captured his freewheeling personality and tongue-in-cheek humour.
Rishabh Pant's signature. That is all. pic.twitter.com/eYzAm0IISs
— Karthik Krishnaswamy (@the_kk) January 27, 2021
Pant’s signature is like an adhesive duck😂 https://t.co/zJwsdkJjze
— z N e D (@MadMart05) January 27, 2021
Pant added the baby face from hi babysitting shenanigans! 🤭❤️ https://t.co/Hv8XMwN4cM
— Chawla (@oldmonk_aurcoke) January 28, 2021
https://twitter.com/varunshetty/status/1354638079093424130
The bowlers all have solid identifiable strokes.
Shubhman’s looks like Mandarin, and Rishab’s is just the best 😄 https://t.co/t8LiFqIvxh— Gaurav Kapur (@gauravkapur) January 28, 2021
Test cricket needs more smiley faces. 🙂 https://t.co/hiqCbBDYzX
— Melinda Farrell (@melindafarrell) January 27, 2021
Kuldeep Yadav did not get a game in the Test series, but fans couldn’t help noticing the similarity in his autograph and that of Sachin Tendulkar, perhaps the most popular signature in Indian cricket. The loop at the start does seem to mimic his bowling action though.
Kuldeep's looks a lot like Sachin's pic.twitter.com/eJbPMyHkNN
— Abraham Abhishek (@ManThirteenth) January 28, 2021
Shardul Thakur, who made a vital contribution in India’s Sydney triumph, had perhaps the most expressive signature of the lot, using ample space to put down a wavy autograph on the front and centre of the jersey.
Don't know why but Shardul Thakur's looks the most elite…
— Cricopinions (@Cricopinions1) January 27, 2021
Many wondered the reasoning behind the “100” below the autograph of Prithvi Shaw, whose struggles with the bat made him a target of constant criticism during the series. Most probably, it was a harmless mention of the jersey being a gift for Lyon’s 100th Test.
Shaw's sign has a 100 written below.
Says a lot about his desperation— Ric_Lucky🏖🏕 (@riclucky143) January 27, 2021
Wriddhiman Saha’s safe wicketkeeping couldn’t get much game time in the series given Rishabh Pant’s fine run of form, but the 36-year-old’s three-lined ‘S’ probably denoted his love for standing behind the stumps.
Saha is behind the wickets 😁
— Ravi Vyas (@ravyas75) January 28, 2021
For some, Jasprit Bumrah’s contribution to the jersey, complete with a short build-up and jerky lines, perfectly captured his bowling action.
Bumrah n his Signature is as short as his run up 🔥#Bumrah #IndvAus #TeamIndia https://t.co/v0hgsp1rIz
— Karthik Rao (@Cric_Karthikk) January 28, 2021
Cheteshwar Pujara’s dour batting style is difficult to be matched, so is his rather stiff autograph that ends with an interesting wiggle.
Or Pujara’s where he’s clearly fallen down the Gabba stairs at the time of writing.
— Dave Sera Sera (@davesera_sera) January 27, 2021
Pant's signature obviously takes the cake, but look at Pujara's too.
You can see this man loves taking his time.
And then, Prithvi सौ… https://t.co/BnBOIL6S4C
— Abhishek Mukherjee (@ovshake42) January 27, 2021
Did Pujara trip while doing his?
— Nakul Pande (@NakulMPande) January 27, 2021
I think pujara's signature is also worth a mention. What's happening there? How does he manage to replicate it?
— Rudraneil Sengupta (@RudraneilSengu1) January 28, 2021
Handwriting tells a lot, doesn’t it? Jinks seems to have the most “grounded” signature. The rest are all “swashbuckling “!
— Badshah of Balderdash (@Vox_Cipher) January 27, 2021
You could put Siraj and Saini's signatures as brand name stickers on futuristic space racing ships.
— jai (@tycho_station) January 28, 2021
If anyone noticed the signatures:@cheteshwar1 : with lots of walls@RishabhPant17 : with a swing@imShard : with loads of pillars (bat/bowl/field)@Jaspritbumrah93 : with a zipping action@Natarajan_91 : with time his signature wil grow wid his fame@Wriddhipops : as safe as web
— Ankit Dhasmana (@DhasmanaAshu) January 28, 2021