When India was in a difficult scenario on Day 1 of the Edgbaston Test, Indian wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant continued his stellar performance in Tests by hitting his fifth century in the longest format.
Pant stepped into the fray as the visitors were in trouble at 72/4 following Virat Kohli’s wicket by Matthew Potts. Before getting choked down the leg side, Shreyas Iyer played a couple of beautiful strokes.
Unfazed, Pant started to play a classic counterattacking knock while Ravindra Jadeja held down the fort at the other end. Pant got things going against Jack Leach by hitting consecutive balls for fours, fours, and sixes.
The two had defeated the English pace attack at Tea by bringing India to 174/5. After the interval, they increased the stakes since they were warming up to the young Potts.
English shoulders sagged as runs started to leak, but Pant remained in asserting his dominance. To make the legendary James Anderson uncomfortable, he repeatedly danced down the track and even attempted to reverse the ramp.
He nervously entered the nineties with a few errant strokes against Leach before carefully hitting the landmark with a double off of Stuart Broad. The fastest hundred by an Indian wicketkeeper was achieved by him in 88 balls.
In addition, he has scored four centuries outside of Asia, which is one more than all the other wicket keepers who have played for India in the longest version of the game combined.
