ENG vs IND 1st Test: Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul Hand India Firm Grip Heading Into Day 5 Against England

Mumbai: Rishabh Pant is not for the faint-hearted. The things he does on a cricket field include cartwheels that one seldom sees in the gentleman’s game, and his extraordinary batsmanship in the first Test after back-to-back hundreds has now given India a firm grip heading into the final day in Leeds as the visitors reached 298/4 at tea, with a lead of 304 runs.

KL Rahul was all class and sublime as he sauntered his way to his ninth hundred and third in England that defied the home team’s bowling attack. However, it was Pant, who smashed records galore while providing pure theatre to the almost capacity crowd at Headingley with hordes of Indian supporters in attendance.

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Pant became the first Indian batter to score centuries in both innings of a Test match in England and also the second specialist wicket-keeper batsman in history, after Zimbabwe’s Andy Flower, to score back-to-back hundreds in the same Test. The Uttarakhand man’s 134 comprised 13 fours and two sixes, and when he struck those maximums, he obliterated another record, becoming the visiting batter to score the most sixes in a Test in England with eight sixes, including six from the first innings.

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He also became the seventh Indian batter to score twin hundreds in the same Test, with legends such as Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, and Rohit Sharma preceding him. After escaping unscathed from a horrific road accident in late 2022 that saw him miss the 2023 ODI World Cup held in India, Pant’s comeback is now truly complete after his two back-to-back hundreds, which will be career-defining ones in hindsight.

Great players have a great sense of occasion, and Pant produced a tremendous performance with the great Sunil Gavaskar applauding him from the stands and exhorting him to do the somersault again, overcome with emotion. The same Gavaskar had criticised Pant on live commentary during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy when the 27-year-old had played a poor shot to get out, muttering ‘stupid, stupid, stupid’ to express his frustration with the proceedings.

Rahul’s calming presence at the other end while the Karnataka batter himself produced a fantastic hundred of his own provided an able folly to the Pant show. With the dangerous Jasprit Bumrah looming large, things look ominous for Ben Stokes’ England side as India look to script an unexpected yet astonishing victory at Leeds.