Rishabh Pant on Saturday etched his name in the history books by surpassing MS Dhoni to become the Indian wicketkeeper with the most Test centuries, following his superb knock against England in the first Test at Leeds.
Pant’s blistering innings of 134 runs off 178 balls included 12 fours and 6 sixes, scored at an impressive strike rate of over 75. With this, Pant reached his seventh Test century, going past Dhoni’s tally of six centuries as a wicketkeeper-batter.
Significantly, this was also Pant’s fifth Test century in SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) — the highest by any Asian batter in these tough conditions. His SENA tons include three in England, and one each in Australia and South Africa.
Pant has now equalled Kumar Sangakkara (7 centuries) for the most Test centuries by a designated keeper from Asia and has also matched Sourav Ganguly’s record of three Test tons in England, trailing only Rahul Dravid (6), Sachin Tendulkar (4), and Dilip Vengsarkar (4) among Indians in England.
His century also marked the third time he reached the three-figure mark with a six — all against English spinners (Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Shoaib Bashir). Only Sachin Tendulkar (6 times) and Rohit Sharma (3 times) have done this as Indians more or equally often.
Earlier in the innings, Pant also crossed 3,000 Test runs, becoming only the second Indian wicketkeeper after Dhoni to reach the milestone. His aggregate is now the highest by any Asian wicketkeeper-batter in SENA countries.
This match saw another rare feat as Pant, along with Shubman Gill (147) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (101), made it only the fourth instance of three Indian players scoring centuries in the same Test innings outside Asia. Previous instances include:
- Gavaskar, Srikkanth, Amarnath (Australia, Sydney 1986)
- Dravid, Sehwag, Ganguly (England, Leeds 2002)
- Sehwag, Dravid, Kaif (West Indies, Gros Islet 2006)
India ended the first session on Day 2 at 454/7, with Ravindra Jadeja (2) unbeaten*. While Pant, Gill, and Jaiswal shone, Karun Nair registered a duck on his comeback, and Shardul Thakur failed to fire.
England’s Ben Stokes emerged as the standout bowler, picking 4/66, offering his team some respite with timely breakthroughs.
Pant’s record-breaking knock adds another glorious chapter to his young career and further cements his reputation as India’s finest Test wicketkeeper-batter overseas.