Former England captain Nasser Hussain lauded Rishabh Pant for his fearless batting approach after the wicket-keeper bat scored his second century of the opening Test against England at Leeds, Headingley on Monday.
After scoring a brilliant knock of 134 runs in the first innings, Pant backed it with another hundred in the second essay. The left-hander scored a majestic knock of 118 runs off 140 balls and added 195 runs with KL Rahul, who scored 137 runs.
Pant is known for his aggressive style of batting and smashed 15 fours and three sixes in his blistering knock in the second innings.
This was Pant’s eight Test century as he continues to impress in the red-ball version. Pant is the first Indian batter to score twin centuries in a Test match in English conditions. The left-hander also became the seventh Indian batter to score two centuries in a Test match and became the second wicket-keeper after Andy Flower to score hundreds in each innings of a Test.
Nasser Hussain said on Sky Sports, “He [Pant] doesn’t know what he’s going to do from ball to ball, you don’t know what he’s going to do in an over or session. He himself is not making it up, not playing by numbers, but has a gut feeling about when he’s going to hit.
“There have been people with better strike rates, maybe Chris Gayle, who hit the ball farther and harder, AB de Villiers and whatever, but this lad is so freakish. You don’t know whether he’s going to block-block-slog or slog-slog-block or he’ll come down second ball of his innings and not do anything for the next 10 overs.”
“He must be a nightmare to captain against and Stokes was worried about the boundaries and he thought he’d get him caught in the deep with one of those big hits or leading edges.”
Hussain recalled Pant’s first 20-30 balls, which was all cinema as the left-hander was seen talking to himself and urged himself to play with a straight bat after missing his premeditated shots.
“At the other end, Rishabh Pant’s first 20-30 balls were extraordinary. He’s talking to himself about playing straight, being sensible. Then, two balls later, he’s falling on the floor or flinging himself. He must have sort of hit fresh air 10 or 15 times, going for huge wahoos.
India has 350 runs in the bank and would need 10 wickets to win the opening Test.
