England vs India: Rishabh Pant scores 146 off 111 to help India on to a good total on day one

Rishabh Pant has done it again. He scores yet another century in challenging conditions to rescue his team in the final test against England at Edgbaston.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man, they say. And Rishabh Pant definitely stood up when his team was in dire need.

It was unusual as India was touring England for a one-off test. It was a continuation of the series India and England played in 2021. The five-match Test series was curtailed due to COVID-19 infection.
As a result, the final match of the series was postponed to 2022.

Almost 297 days later, India and England went at it yet again. With the test series on the line.

Until this point, India was leading the series 2-1. And given the fact that India has not won a series in England since 2007, this final match had a great hype building all year long.

Bad start for Indian batters

The match didn’t start as the Indian team would have liked it to. They lost their first wicket at the score of 27, and the batter to depart was Shubhman Gill. He was having a good time out until he poked at a ball swinging away. As a result, Anderson dented India’s batting lineup in the 7th over itself.

The 29-year-old was out for blood in the final test of the series, and he picked up another wicket coming back in his second spell. This time it was Cheteshwar Pujara who became his second victim.

Continuing his good form over the summer thus far, Matty Potts came into action and picked up the prized wicket of Vihari. And only two overs later, he followed it with the prized wicket of Virat Kohli.

Anderson continued his carnage in the third. He bowled some vicious bouncers to unsettle Iyer before getting him strangled down the leg.

As a result, India was 5 down for just 98 runs at the end of the 28th over.

For a moment, it felt as if this was it. The hope of India winning the series was falling with every wicket. That is when Rishabh Pant, along with Ravindra Jadeja, decided to step up.

Rishabh Pant scores magnificent century

Not batting against the nature of his game, Pant took the attack to England. He took on senior bowlers like Stuart Broad and James Anderson.

Pant was not alone in this counterattack. He was joined by Ravindra Jadeja, who played some marvellous straight bat shots to redeem the Indian inning.

But it was always going to be Rishabh Pant who would turn out to be the aggressive of the two, and so it turned out. He scored fifty off, just 51 balls.

The 24-year-old wasn’t done with showcasing his skill yet, though. And he picked up a severe pace in the post-tea session.

It all started with Rishabh Pant taking the attack on Matthew Potts. Then he went after James Anderson yet again. His cricketing wagon wheel included a most unorthodox reverse lap against Anderson. It almost turned the clock back to 2021, when he played a similar shot in India against the same bowler.

Everyone knows what happens when Rishabh Pant plays flamboyantly. Yes, he brought up his fifth test century in just 89 balls to break the record of fastest hundred by an Indian wicketkeeper in Test cricket.

Rishabh Pant’s counterattacking cricket helped India see through the score of 300 on the very first day.

Sadly, the young batter couldn’t add more to his tally. He was dismissed for the score of 146 by Joe Root.

It was an entertaining knock by Rishabh Pant that included 20 fours and 4 monstrous sixes. He added 222 runs for the 6th wicket along with Ravindra Jadeja. This is the highest 6th wicket partnership against England.

India will be hoping to build on this great start to the match and register an emphatic win over their English counterparts.