Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], March 5 (ANI): India looked in a tough situation after losing early wickets on day two of the fourth Test against England, but wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant put the hosts back in the driver’s seat with this brilliant century.
Praising Pant for his “unbelievable” knock, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly said that the player will be an “all-time great in all formats” in the years to come.
“How good is he? Unbelievable..what a knock under pressure…not the first time and won’t be the last time..will be an all time great in all formats in the years to come.keep batting in this aggressive manner .thats why will be match winner and special..@bcci @RishabhPant17,” Ganguly tweeted.
Reverse sweeping James Anderson to pick a boundary on the second day of a Test match perfectly summed up Pant’s belligerent knock at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Friday.
The swashbuckling wicket-keeper batsman single-handedly put India in command on the second day of the fourth Test with his third century in Test cricket. Having started cautiously, Pant took the English bowlers to the cleaners in the final session to take the game away from the visitors and put the hosts on top.
India opener Rohit Sharma on Friday labelled Pant’s 101-run knock as the finest he has seen from the wicketkeeper-batsman so far in the longest format of the game.
“In my opinion, it was probably his (Pant) finest knock. It came under pressure as well, we were not in a good position when he came out to bat. We saw few sides of Rishabh Pant’s knock today. He was cautious at the beginning and then he actually flourished like we know Rishabh can. He put the team into a good position, when we came inside during the tea break, the message to both Rishabh and Washington Sundar was that we need to get to England’s score and then try to press from there.
“Then, Rishabh played his natural game, which is absolutely fine and a lot of courage he showed in the middle and it was fantastic,” said Rohit while replying to an ANI query during a virtual press conference on Friday.
At stumps, India’s score read 294/7 with Washington Sundar (60) and Axar Patel (11) at the crease — leading the visitors by 89 runs in the first innings. India scored 141 runs in 32 overs in the final session of the second day. (ANI)
