Rishabh Pant: How the wicketkeeper-batter compares to other legends including Dhoni and Gilchrist?

India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant returned to Test cricket in some style during the first Test against Bangladesh in Chennai. After scoring 39 runs in the first innings, Pant hit a 124-ball century in the second innings to help India declare on a score of 287/4, a massive improvement given their shaky start the previous day. This total enabled India to set Bangladesh a target of 515 to win with two days to go after Saturday.

For Pant, this is a special knock considering that he is returning to the Test format after a two-year absence. In fact, his last Test prior to this, was also against Bangladesh, in Mirpur in December 2022.

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Later in December 2022, Pant suffered multiple injuries during a car accident, but he fought his way back to the cricketing field after months of rehabilitation and recovery. Every now and then, Pant has been compared to some of the all-time wicketkeeping greats in Test cricket including MS Dhoni and Australia’s Adam Gilchrist.

Where does the southpaw stand when compared to wicketkeeping legends like Gilchrist and Dhoni?

Top five run-scorers among wicketkeepers in Tests and where Pant stands

2. Adam Gilchrist (Australia) —5537 runs in 137 innings

3. Mark Boucher (South Africa) —5515 runs in 207 innings

4. MS Dhoni (India) —4876 innings in 144 innings

5. Alec Stewart (England) — 4540 runs in 145 innings

6. Andy Flower (Zimbabwe) —4404 runs in 100 innings.

As far as this particular stat is concerned, Rishabh Pant is in 30th place. Pant, who made his Test debut in 2018, has scored 2,419 runs from 58 innings at an average of 44.80, with six centuries and 11 fifties to his name.

Records Rishabh Pant holds as a wicketkeeper-batter in Tests

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—Rishabh Pant is on joint-top position for most catches in a Test match (11), along with South Africa’s AB de Villiers and England’s Jack Russell.  He is also joint-top for most dismissals in a match.

—Pant is in joint-10th place for most 90s in his Test career. He has six scores of 90s in the longest format for India.

—Pant is also a part of an elite group of cricketers who have scored 300 runs and made 15 dismissals in a Test series. Pant scored 349 runs and took 18 wickets during India’s tour of England in 2021-22.

—With his century on Saturday, Pant equalled Dhoni’s record of most centuries by an Indian wicketkeeper in Tests. Dhoni registered six Test centuries, and Pant currently has the same number of tons.

Comparing Rishabh Pant with Adam Gilchrist

This is Rishabh Pant’s 34th Test, and after the completion of 34 Tests for both Pant and former Australia wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist, Pant has scored more runs, as per Cricket.com.

After 34 Tests, Pant has scored 2,419 runs, whereas the Aussie legend had only scored 2,282 runs. Pant has six Test tons and so did Gilchrist at this point, although the latter had one fifty (12 fifties) more than Pant (11). Gilchrist, however, had a better average (58.51) than that of Rishabh Pant (44.80).