Rishabh Pant proved to be the catalyst for India’s amazing 2-1 Test series win over Australia, as the visitors beat hosts by 3 wickets at the Gabba, Brisbane, and retained the Broder-Gavaskar Trophy as well.

Pant built on Shubman Gill’s 91 and Cheteshwar Pujara’s gritty 55, to keep his cool and take India past the finish line and achieve the 328-run target. He remained unbeaten on 89 with 9 fours and 1 six, ensuring that along with Washington Sundar, he won the match for his team.

Not only did the Indian team players and captain lauded Pant’s knock, even Australia’s batting genius Steve Smith had words of praise for the Indian wicketkeeper-batsman.

AUS v IND 2020-21: "One of the biggest moments of my life"- Rishabh Pant after his heroics at Gabba

"He's an exceptional talent as we've seen, he played a pretty amazing inning on a day-five wicket. He (Pant) took the game on, played in his areas. We've seen in short-form cricket in particular how good he is and where he can hit the ball and that was a pretty special innings today,” Smith told cricket.com.au.

Not being picked for the first Test in Adelaide, Pant finished as India's highest run-scorer in the series with 274 runs, and his innings on day five in both Sydney – where he made a crucial 97 in India's defiant draw – and Brisbane proved decisive in the series outcome.

He was named the Player of the Match for his well-praised innings that earned India a second consecutive Test series win in Australia and also made them the first and only Asian team to win a Test at Gabba, Brisbane. This defeat also ended Australia’s 32-year unbeaten run at the venue, which started in November, 1988.

(cricket.com.au inputs)