Rishabh Pant sparked back to become the talk of the town with his record seventh Test century as he touched the three-figure mark en route his knock of 134 runs against England at Headingely in Leeds on Saturday. Powered by 12 fours and six maximums, Pant was a sight to behold on the crease as he blended his aggressive strokeplay with an occasional balanced approach to always keep the English bowling unit guessing, thus maximising scoring opportunities in all areas of the field.
Former India international Dinesh Karthik, who has shared the national dressing room with Pant, hailed him as the country’s best-ever wicketkeeper-batsman in Tests. He appreciated the adaptability the 27-year-old has shown in away tours, having bagged centuries in Australia, South Africa, and thrice in England. In addition to seven tons, Pant also has 15 half-centuries including seven 90+ scores in merely 44 Test matches, as Karthik believes that he was born to play in this format.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!“Without a shadow of doubt, he is India’s most successful wicketkeeper-batsman. He has improved his keeping. The best thing about Rishabh Pant is how well he has adapted to travel. He has gone and scored centuries in Australia, South Africa, and now thrice in England. It just tells you how comfortable he is with playing Test cricket anywhere. It comes to him naturally. He is very aggressive. Look, he is a superstar. He is always going to take risks. He is going to do whatever is against the grain at the moment. If you feel he has to defend, he will hit, if you feel he has to hit, he will end up defending. I will never judge him for his shot selection,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
Besides that though, Pant has also naturally evolved in his glovework ever since debuting in the longest format in 2018. Back then, he was often found wanting judging the trajectory of the moving ball. This time around, he looks much at ease in those duties, and noted pundit Navjot Singh Sidhu talks highly of the same, along with the fact that he is impeccable in reading game situations, a hallmark that separates him from the rest of his peers.
“Rishabh Pant has been a revolutionary figure on the field. Besides his batting, you see his smarts behind the stumps too. You saw it when there was slight rain during the English innings. He asked the umpire to stop the play just like they had done during the Indian innings. It was very clever of him to suggest so. He is such a character! He is an endearing person. Whatever he has on his lips, is what he does on the field. As clear as that,” Sidhu said on Star Sports.
Whilst praise from fellow countrymen is natural, Pant has also been making heads turn amongst the English cricketing fraternity. Several Indian fans remained glued to the stands even after stumps on Day 2 to catch a glimpse of the maverick wicketkeeper, as former captain and Sky Sports analyst Nasser Hussain called Pant an absolute box office entertainer who compels people to watch cricket in whites due to his exploits.
"It's an incredible last two days from Rishabh Pant. Good or bad, the block or the swipe, whether it's the last day of the Test match, the last over of Day 1, the hundred on Day 2, the celebration for the same, or even the way he got out, the wicketkeeping - he has always got a smile on his face! There are a lot of Indian fans here still waiting on the ground! Rishabh Pant is absolutely box office. Everyone loves watching this lad play," Hussain said.
Having been handed the vice-captaincy duties, Pant has additional responsibilities on his shoulders in this mammoth five-match tour of England. However, he showed little to no signs of budging under that pressure as he went about business as usual in Leeds on the first two days of the Test match. With seniors retired, the Men in Blue are embarking on a new era altogether in red-ball cricket, and Pant has all the promise and potential to become the torchbearer of the country’s cricketing carnival for the years to come.
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