Rishabh Pant on Friday hit his fifth Test century to help India fight back against England at Edgbaston, Birmingham. At the time of filing the report, India were 251/5 in 58 overs on Day 1 of the rescheduled fifth Test with Pant (102 off 91) and Ravindra Jadeja (51 off 110).
Put into bat, India were in a dire spot with the top five gone for 71 runs inside the 25th over. Pant, together with Jadeja, then revived the Indian innings with an unbeaten century stand.
Rishabh Pant reached the landmark with a tight double off the first ball in the 58th over, bowled by Stuart Broad. He took 89 balls (15 fours and one six), the fastest by an Indian wicketkeeper. The previous record belonged to legendary Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
It was also the third-fastest century by an Indian batter outside Asia, only behind Virender Sehwag (78 vs West India at Gros Islet in 2006) and Mohammad Azharuddin (88 vs England at Lords in 1990).
Pant now has the most Test centuries by an Indian wicketkeeper overseas (four). Vijay Manjrekar, Ajay Ratra and Wriddhiman Saha have three each.
Also, Pant became the fourth Indian wicketkeeper to hit two Test hundreds in a calendar year, after Budhi Kunderan in 1964, MS Dhoni in 2009 and Saha in 2017. But Pant is the only one to do so in away Tests.
During the knock, Pant also crossed the 2000-run mark in Test cricket, in 52 innings off 31 matches.
The 24-year-old left-handed batter made his Test debut against England at Nottingham in 2018.
