Rishabh Pant on Tuesday became the first Indian wicketkeeper to score a Test century in England, notching up a brilliant 114 in the final Test match at The Oval.
Pant, 20, also became just the fourth Indian wicketkeeper to score a ton in overseas conditions after Vijay Manjrekar (118, 1959), Ajay Ratra (115, 2002) and Wriddhiman Saha (100, 2016). And while all of the past Indian wicket-keepers have scored their centuries against the West Indies, Pant is the first to score against England.
Making his Test debut at the third Test at Trent Bridge, Pant had smashed the second ball he had faced in an international Test match for a monstrous six, etching his name into history books by becoming just the 12th cricketer to do so – get off the mark with a six on Test debut.
It was no different on Tuesday and Pant, who had partnered KL Rahul (149) in saving the Test for India hit another six to reach to his maiden Test century. He was batting on 95 when he lofted a ball from Adil Rashid over the bowler’s head to bring up the hundred.
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It made him just the fourth Indian to record their maiden Test century with a six. The legendary Kapil Dev had done it against the mighty West Indies in 1978-79. Irfan Pathan was the second Indian to do so when he smashed a huge six against Pakistan in 2007. Then Harbhajan Singh, having come to back with India six wickets down and struggling to save Test against New Zealand at Ahmedabad in 2010, battled his way to a marvelous century, putting cherry to the ice with a six to record his first Test hundred.
Meanwhile, KL Rahul also registered his fifth century and fourth in foreign conditions making a brilliant 149 to take India closest to save the Test match. The pair together stitched a wonderful 205-run partnership to rescue India from what could have been a humiliating defeat.
India eventually lost the Test by 118 runs to go down 4-1 in the five-match Test series.