Rishabh Pant slammed his signature one-handed six over mid-wicket off Shoaib Bashir to reach his seventh Test century on Saturday morning in Leeds.
The wicketkeeper-batter then celebrated in style by acknowledging the crowd before performing a celebratory somersault, sending the Headingley crowd into a frenzy.
The innings was special, more than just flair, and, as Stuart Broad termed it, “a box office innings”. With this ton, he surpassed Mahendra Singh Dhoni to become the Indian wicketkeeper with the most Test centuries (7).
Even Sunil Gavaskar couldn’t hold himself back once Pant reached the landmark. “Superb, superb, superb,” said a smiling Gavaskar during commentary.
It was only six months back that Gavaskar’s “stupid, stupid, stupid” on-air rant had gone viral after Pant surrendered his wicket playing a rash shot during the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
India added 112 runs to their overnight total. The manner in which they came, spoke of not just an upper hand but a degree of menace. Pant smashed 70 of them, being at his mischievous best, and his dismissal was even rued by the partisan English crowd.
Pant’s innings was of heaves and tumbles and there were no chances offered till 124 when the bat flew out of his hands as he tried to smash the ball out of the ground.
The shot of the second morning was perhaps Pant’s tumbling ramp shot to Bashir’s first ball. The scoop over leg slip raced to the fence in a flash.
Sachin Tendulkar made an interesting observation. “Rishabh’s falling paddle sweep is not accidental. It is intentional and extremely clever. Going down with the shot allows him to get under the ball and scoop it over leg slip with control,” he wrote on X.
Pant had perhaps made his intentions clear on the first afternoon itself when he came down the track to Ben Stokes, the second ball he faced, and thumped it over the bowler’s head. The England captain had burst out laughing, perhaps in awe.
“...that reception which Pant got was one of the loudest I’ve heard for an opposition player scoring a hundred in England,” said Broad during commentary.
“We didn’t know what was coming... There were those falling scoops, full-blooded shots, run-out chances… Everything you want as a Test match fan — patience,
leaving, then a flair shot, putting the bowlers under pressure. The crowd really appreciated everything Rishabh Pant did. Box office, truly a box office innings."
