 "Rishabh Pant celebrates after hitting his 7th ton. Image: Reuters")
Rishabh Pant continued his red-hot form in Test cricket by scoring a brilliant century on Day 2 of the first Test between India and England at Headingley, Leeds. Pant reached the milestone in the very first session of the day with a six off Shoaib Bashir’s bowling and celebrated by doing a perfect somersault.
Rishabh Pant breaks MS Dhoni’s record
This was Pant’s 7th Test hundred, and with this, he has now gone past former India legend MS Dhoni to become the Indian wicketkeeper with the most centuries in red-ball cricket. Dhoni had 6 Test hundreds in his career from 90 matches before he retired from the format in 2014. Pant has achieved this in half the games.
Pant, who was unbeaten overnight, showed great intent from the start of play on Day 2. He attacked the bowlers whenever they gave him a chance. His hundred came in 146 balls and included 10 boundaries and 4 sixes.
Pant made another record on Day 1 when he completed 3000 Test runs as a wicketkeeper-batter, becoming the second fastest to do so after Australian legend Adam Gilchrist. India are now in a strong position in the match. Apart from Pant, Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal also scored a century each. Gill is still batting with Pant in the middle at the time of writing this copy.