Former cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has hailed Rishabh Pant as India's best wicketkeeper-batter in the longest format, surpassing even MS Dhoni.
Manjrekar’s assessment came after Pant slammed a stunning hundred on Day 2 of the Headingley Test against England.
The southpaw scored 134 off 178 balls before being dismissed, thereby surpassing Dhoni in the list of most centuries by a designated Indian wicketkeeper-batter in Test history.
Speaking on JioHotstar, Manjrekar highlighted how Pant's impressive record when playing away from home puts him ahead of Dhoni.
“Again, I am a believer in where you got your hundreds, and I'm a big sort of, I always look at hundreds. OK, where have we got it? He's got hundreds in England. He's got 100 in South Africa. He's got a couple of hundreds in Australia,” Manjrekar said.
During his illustrious career, Dhoni played 48 Tests away from home, amassing 2496 runs at an average of 32.84 with 18 fifties and just one century in Pakistan.
On the other hand, Rishabh Pant has already aggregated 1976 runs in the 30 overseas Tests played with an average of 39.52, including six fifties and five hundreds.
The numbers clearly suggest that Pant has been better, and he looks on track to take over Dhoni’s tally of Test runs away from home.
According to Manjrekar, Dhoni’s best knocks have come in slightly lesser challenging conditions.
“So when you look at the MS' hundreds, with all due respect to his fans, his centuries would not be so much in these countries where batting is a bit more challenging, as batting on an Indian pitch. In Test cricket, he's already well ahead of MS,” he added.
Following the end of India’s first innings, Manjrekar also pointed out how Pant has gotten out in the nineties quite a few times. The swashbuckling left-handed has been dismissed as many as seven times in the nineties in Test cricket.
“By far, India’s greatest ever Test batter-keeper. I was worried when he was in the 90s that he might end up getting his 8th 90 of his career. It is just unbelievable that he has so many 90s! But he’s a breath of fresh air,” he remarked.
Manjrekar was also appreciative of the crowd in England who have a taste for good competitive cricket.
“When he got out and raised his bat, there were a lot of English supporters who stood up and applauded that innings. That’s what we love about England — these guys come to watch good cricket. They want their team to win, but when they see excellence from the opposition, you can see true appreciation for it,” he concluded.
Coming to the match, India squandered the advantage on Day 2 to be bowled out for 471 in their first innings. The visitors lost their last seven wickets for 41 runs.
Apart from Pant, opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (101) and skipper Shubman Gill (147) scored centuries for India at Headingley. Josh Tongue and Ben Stokes scalped four wickets each for England.
