Rishabh Pant did another defense job for the Indian team, this time against England in the fifth, rescheduled Test match against England at Edgbaston. The left-handed batsman scored his fifth century in Test cricket to save India from a terrible disaster.
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After early bursts of James Anderson and Matty Potts, in which half of India’s batting line-up went back into the dugout within 100 runs, Pant, along with Ravindra Jadeja, put on a hundred-run partnership to keep India on track.
Cloudy conditions in Birmingham gave an advantage to the pacers, however, Pant came out with a counterattack from the start, leaving the English bowling attack undetected. Both were particularly punishing against Jack Leach who conceded 29 runs in his first five overs.
Pant saw fit to charge towards the fast bowlers, disturbing their momentum, and then used the depth of the crease to pull out his famous reverse laps. After reaching his fifty, Pant got into ‘attack mode’ and quickly brought the Indian team’s run rate up.
Earlier in the day, seaming conditions at Edgbaston meant that none of India’s top four batsmen were able to last long against some of the checking lines and lengths of England’s bowlers. Cheteshwar Pujara, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari all got out on good and fuller length pitched deliveries.
In this Test match, vice-captain Pant chose to promote himself ahead of Shreyas Iyer and stabilize the innings, however, in vain after Virat Kohli’s delivery back to his own stump.
It was another counter-attack that saved India from a collapse, something that has become synonymous with Pant. He did this repeatedly in Australia in a historic Test series win under Ajinkya Rahane in 2020/21.
He has earlier scored two centuries against England, one at home and one away, one century against South Africa and one against Australia.