Rishabh Pant slammed twin centuries in the first Test against England at Headingley.
Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant slammed twin centuries in the first Test match against England at Headingley, Leeds.
The southpaw followed up his brilliant 134 in the first innings with an entertaining 118 in the second essay. As a result, he became only the second wicketkeeper in history to score a century in both innings of a Test match, joining Zimbabwe legend Andy Flower in an elite list.
However, Pant’s valiant knocks went in vain as the visitors lost the match by five wickets. Indian bowlers fell flat, allowing the hosts to chase down a massive target of 371 in the fourth innings.
Ahead of the second Test at Edgbaston, England skipper Ben Stokes expressed his admiration for Rishabh Pant, saying that he "absolutely loves watching him play".
"I absolutely love watching Rishabh Pant play cricket, I love the way he takes it on, in all formats of the game," Stokes said in the pre-match presser.
"He has got a bit of stick in his time, but that type of talent, when you let that type of talent be free, that is what can happen, you know, last week. But yeah, it is the sort of thing when you look back on last week and credit to him, two 100s in the game, we know we are going to get our chances with the way that Rishabh plays. So yeah, it is one of them, on a different day it could have looked a little bit different if one of those had gone straight off into a hand."
"But yeah, very dangerous player, we know what he brings to the Indian team, but I really enjoy watching Rishabh play cricket," he remarked.
On whether India's strategy to have their ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah play just three Tests impacts England's planning, Stokes replied, "That is India's problem to deal with. I am the captain of England. Let India decide what they want to do and what they want to say publicly."
England playing XI for second Test against India: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.
(With ANI Inputs)