India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant was among the top trends on Twitter on Saturday after he saved Virat Kohli from making a glaring error against Bangladesh on the fourth day of the opening Test in Chattogram.

Needing 513 to win, Bangladesh openers Najmul Hossain Shanto and Zakir Hasan gave the hosts a solid start by adding more than 100 runs for the first wicket, before India pacer Umesh Yadav ended their resistance.

Although he could have been denied the wicket of Najmul Hossain Shanto as Virat Kohli had made a huge mistake. After Umesh Yadav lured the Bangladeshi batter into a false stroke, the ball flew towards Virat Kohli, standing at first slip.

But the former India captain was a little late in reacting and the ball deflected after getting out of his hand. Luckily for Virat Kohli and India, it moved in the direction of Rishabh Pant.

While the 25-year-old too failed to collect the ball in his first attempt, he somehow managed to gather it in his gloves on the second opportunity saving Virat Kohli the blush.

As Rishabh Pant's heroics helped India to secure the much-needed breakthrough, the video of the catch instantly went viral on social media.

 

Hours later, Rishabh Pant also made a stunning stumping to send Bangladesh batter Nurul Hasan back to the pavilion.

His stunning glove work even led to his comparisons with the legendary MS Dhoni with the veteran Dinesh Karthik heaping rich praise on him for his lightning stumping.

“He idolizes MS Dhoni and Dhoni would be really proud of the way he did that stumping. The beauty about it is, when the ball is pitched closer, it can be hard to react faster. You get the feeling that the batsman is going to play the shot. But Pant was ready for the ball to miss the bat, and he was already bringing his hand towards the stump. That's why it was done at such a quick speed,” Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz.

“As a wicketkeeper, your action is to receive the ball whereas in this case, and why Dhoni was also special, he started predicting when he saw the ball. There was a chance that the ball was getting beaten, and they started bringing their hand the other way. That's whre you get the split second difference when it goes to the third umpire. It was a stumping where the batsman was on his way back. What made it special was Pant's awareness about the chance of the batsman being beaten, and bringing the gloves towards the stumps as the ball came through,” Dinesh Karthik added.

“That's why Rishabh Pant idolized MS Dhoni… because he enjoys him as a personality, and these are things he has learnt spending time with MS. This is one such skill keepers need to keep developing,” Dinesh Karthik noted.

Earlier, Fans hit back at former Pakistan captain Salman Butt who made controversial remarks about Rishabh Pant.

Salman Butt's ‘insulting remarks' against the explosive India wicketkeeper batter came after Rishabh Pant made 46 runs off 45 balls in India's first innings of the ongoing opening Test against Bangladesh in Chattogram.

Though Rishabh Pant's knock was praised by many former India cricketers, Salman Butt was critical of his knock as he was unable to complete a big score despite getting his eyes set in the middle.

He was also scathing in his criticism of the Uttarakhand-born cricket star due to the manner of his dismissal. After his counter-attacking knock helped India recover from a poor start, Rishabh Pant played on to lose his wicket, just four runs short of his half-century.

Salman Butt attributed his dismissal to his lack of fitness, even claiming that the left-hander was “overweight” and didn't look agile on the pitch.

“Rishabh Pant jaise khelte hai waise hi khele phir ek innovation karne gaye aur ajeeb sa out hua baat ko laga phir bad pe laga and then stumps mein. Main unki fitness pe hamesha baat islie karta hu ki jis tarike ka shots wo create karne ki koshis karte hai, agar wo fit ho toh asaani hogi ye execute karne mein. (Rishabh Pant was playing the way he likes to, but he went for something innovative and got out. It was a weird dismissal as the ball hit the bat, pad before rattling the stumps. I always speak on Rishabh Pant's fitness because the kind of shots he plays and tries to innovate, it would be easier for him to execute those shots if he was fit.) I think he is overweight. Definitely, he is overweight and because of that, he is not very agile. He is under the level where he should be, in terms of fitness,” Salman Butt said on his YouTube channel.