Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant entertained the fans with a stunning hundred on Day 2 of the first Test against England at Headingley.

Pant slammed 134 off 178 balls, his seventh ton in the longest format, thereby surpassing MS Dhoni in the list of most centuries by a designated Indian wicketkeeper-batter in Test history.

The southpaw celebrated his milestone by doing a somersault celebration, much to the delight of the jam-packed crowd in Leeds.

Ahead of the start of third day’s play, Rishabh Pant shared that he initially considered three celebrations but ultimately chose his trademark one.

"I had three celebrations in mind - of an OK sign on the eye (which footballer Dele Alli does), another was 'let bat do the talking'. Then I thought, I will quietly do the one I know well. I have been doing it from my childhood (handspring)."

"I trained in gymnastics in school. I am very used to it since childhood. Even if you wake up me up in the middle of the night, I can do this. After the accident, I had to work harder for doing this. I worked on it and it's now easy for me to do it," said Pant in a chat with veteran India batter Cheteshwar Pujara for Sony Sports.

The left-hander also revealed what was going through his mind when he was approaching the three figures, which he reached with a one-handed six off Shoaib Bashir over mid-wicket.

"When Bashir was bowling in the previous over, I thought I should get to the hundred. I didn't want to play percentage cricket and take a risk. He was bowling well, so I respected it and took a single."

"In the next over when he came, I told him before 'if you keep the field close-in, I will hit the big shot'. Luckily, I was batting on 99 and I was confident. The pressure was there, but I wanted to play on the merit of the ball."

Just like his teammates, Rishabh Pant came into the Leeds Test without too much practice in red-ball cricket because of the two-month long IPL season. He spoke about the changes he made to his game for excelling in the series opener.

"In my mind, I wanted to cut down on a few shots (in preparation for Tests after IPL). I wanted to play in the V. If you have seen it, I haven't played a lot of shots to balls that were bowled wide. I wanted to play straight and rest of it would be seen after. In my mind, the thought process is always to try read the bowler's thinking - like what is he trying to do."

"Once an idea is made, the thought from me is to put the bowler under pressure as I can hit him out. So playing with the bowler's mindset and trying to disturb him is important, as if you allow the bowler to hit the right areas, so he's always on the top. So playing with that, and then coming back to your zone - this balancing act is just getting more refined - and I am enjoying this a lot."

When asked about his solid defensive game, Pant said, "Mostly it's about the area - if the ball is in a good area, I try not to do too much. Like if a bowler is in a good spell or is working on a set-up, its fine. But when the bowler is not in rhythm, then I try to capitalise on it towards my side. When a bowler is bowling well, I try to defend well against him or leave, as that's the mindset."

(With IANS Inputs)