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Newly-appointed India vice-captain Rishabh Pant scored the 8th Test century of his career during the Men in Blue's second innings against England at Headingley. The left-hand batter brought up his century after facing 130 deliveries as India marched their way to a formidable lead of over 270 runs with the third session still to go. This was also Pant's second century of the match and came after he had punished the English bowling attack with his knock of 134 in the first innings.
Pant achieved a rare feat in Test cricket with the ton
With this century, the 27-year-old wicketkeeper-batter became just the seventh Indian player to score centuries in both the innings in a Test match. He joined the likes of Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma in the elite list. He also became the first wicketkeeper-batter from the country to achieve the rare feat.
Additionally, he became the first Indian batter to score two centuries in a Test match on English soil and just the second wicketkeeper-batter in history to achieve the feat only behind former Zimbabwe cricketer Andy Flower. Interestingly, this is Pant's third consecutive century as before this match, he had played an exceptional unbeaten knock of 118 during his IPL side Lucknow Super Giants' final match of the league stage against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Centuries of both Pant and KL Rahul have helped in pushing the hosts to the back-foot in the match. The England bowlers have so far only been able to take a single wicket during the ongoing fourth day as the Indian batters have completely dominated.
It will be interesting to see if the England bowlers manage to make a comeback into the match by getting multiple wickets in short intervals or if the Indian batters continue to pile on runs and keep on batting until the team decides to declare.
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