India batter Rishabh Pant's love for Test cricket is no secret. The 25-year-old cricketer has been outstanding in the sport's longest format and averages well over 43 with hundreds to his name in England, South Africa, and Australia, making him the first Indian wicketkeeper batter to do so. Though Rishabh Pant has been at the receiving end of criticism from all quarters for his poor returns in white-ball cricket, especially in T20Is, he's a different player altogether in Tests. The Uttarakhand-born player is known for his explosive batting and once again looked at his best on the opening day of the first Test between India and Bangladesh in Chattogram.
After India lost three quick wickets, including the big one of Virat Kohli with less than 100 runs on the board, Rishabh Pant came out firing on all cylinders. In no time, he smocked 46 runs off 45 balls and looked all set to complete another hundred in the five-day version of the game.
However, against the run of play, Rishabh Pant played on a Mehidy Hasan Miraz as his promising knock came to an abrupt end. Despite the left-hander's failure to score a fifty or a century in India's first innings, Rishabh Pant scripted two big records in Bangladesh.
During the course of his knock, Rishabh Pant became the second India wicketkeeper after the legendary MS Dhoni to complete 4,000 runs in international cricket. Overall, he has now scored 2169 runs in 54 innings in the whites, including five hundreds and 10 half-centuries. He has a stunning strike rate of 73.10 and averages 43.48 in Tests.
He also became the second-quickest Indian to smash 50 sixes in the longest format of the game. While Shahid Afridi is the fastest to reach a half-century of maximums in Tests, needing only 26 matches to accomplish the feat, Rohit Sharma occupies the second spot in the list, taking 30 matches to get there. Rishabh Pant made it to the landmark in his 31st Test. Innings-wise Shahid Afridi completed 50 sixes in 46 knocks, while Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant accomplished the number in 51 and 54 innings respectively.
Rishabh Pant also joined an elite group of Indian players who have hit 50 sixes in red-ball cricket. Before him, Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Kapil Dev, Sourav Ganguly, and Ravindra Jadeja hit a fifty of maximums in Tests.
He is currently India's top-scorer in Tests in 2022. So far, he has collected 534 runs in the longest format of the sport this year, including three half-centuries and two hundreds.
With Rishabh Pant back among the runs after his recent struggles in ODIs and T20Is, fans took to Twitter to hail the pocket dynamo.
Rishabh Pant is weird bro. How does this guy play test cricket so effortlessly aggressive but struggle in white ball.
— Heisenberg ☢ (@internetumpire) December 14, 2022
Rishabh pant is only player for India who can play bazz-ball cricket in test for India. pic.twitter.com/ttnb8GNkvQ
— Chetan Choudhary 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳 (@ChetanC75495924) December 14, 2022
Rishabh Pant in Test cricket in the last innings:
– 100*.
– 96.
– 39.
– 50.
– 146.
– 57.
– 46.– 534 runs at an average of 89, he's a superstar of this format! pic.twitter.com/LC6JzXwP4j
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) December 14, 2022
Haters will still hate him. No doubt he is a match winner and need to be patient if he fail in few games. Today he changed the momentum of this test by counter attacking otherwise #TeamIndia was in big trouble. #INDvsBangladesh
— Rashid (@Rash_sf) December 14, 2022
Even former India cricketer Saba Karim liked his intent out there in the middle.
“This has been his approach whenever he has played big knocks, whether it was in Australia or England. He plays attacking shots as soon as he comes to the middle, the field gets spread out, and then runs start coming easily,” Saba Karim told Sony Sports.
“So he was batting like that only today as well. Till the time he was there, he pushed the run rate up and batted freely. Cheteshwar Pujara also gained because of that. He (Pant) disrupted the spinners' rhythm and discipline. That is the advantage of having this type of batter in your team,” Saba Karim added.
Meanwhile, former India spinner Maninder Singh blamed Rishabh Pant's lapse in concentration for his dismissal against Bangladesh.
“I also felt Rishabh Pant would be playing a very big knock but somewhere or the other, it was a concentration lapse. He had hit a six off the previous ball. I have observed that wicketkeepers generally judge very quickly what the bowler is going to do.”
“Probably Rishabh Pant thought that because the previous ball was a full toss and he had hit a six, the next ball is going to be short. It was short as well but he (Miraz) pushed the ball in by using his shoulder slightly. Mehidy Hasan is doing something whenever the captain is giving him the ball, the time is with him.”
Earlier, India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey had revealed that the team management wasn't having any kind of special interactions with the southpaw because everyone was confident about his ability with the bat. On many occasions in the past, including his series-winning knock at the Gabba in Brisbane, Rishabh Pant has delivered for Team India and that's why there were no doubts about him in the dressing room.
“We are not having any special discussion with Rishabh. That's his game and we know that. Nothing changes, that's the way he prepares for any format, white ball and he is pretty much aware about his role in the team,” Paras Mhambrey said on the eve of the opening Test between Bangladesh and India.
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