The legacy of Rishabh Pant continues to grow as the wicketkeeper batter completed his twin century in the ongoing Headingley Test between India and England at Leeds. Pant, who smashed 134 in the first innings, became just the second keeper-batter after Zimbabwe great Andy Flower to score back-to-back hundreds in a Test match, when he scored his 8th Test ton. Pant fell for 118 but had done his job as India swelled their lead over England to 293 and counting. Pant also joins Dilip Vengsarkar, Sachin Tendulkar, and only a select few to score four Test centuries in England. Not even Virat Kohli has that many.
Surprisingly though, there was no somersault celebration from Pant this time around. He did it the first time in the IPL 2025, when he smashed only his second century in the history of the league during Lucknow Super Giants’ last match of the season, and then brought it out again two days ago on Day 2 of the Headingley Test. So when Pant did not swing his body around, it caught a few by surprise, including the legendary Sunil Gavaskar. In fact, the Little Master requested Pant to pull it off, gesturing with his hands, but Pant refused to listen to Gavaskar, who, just 48 hours ago, replaced his infamous ‘stupid, stupid, stupid’ remark with ‘superb, superb, superb’.
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“Maybe later,” said Sanjay Manjrekar on air.
Watch the video below:
Unstoppable Rishabh Pant
In the firing line for his flop show in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier this year – he had scored 255 runs from nine innings across five Tests – Pant has already scored 252, with four more matches left. Pant’s carnage, along with KL Rahul‘s calm, ensured India pushed themselves to a stage from where they cannot lose the match. With an eye on setting England a huge total, they would rather fancy their chances of giving the hosts a scare when Jasprit Bumrah gets the ball in his hand.
Pant has made more headlines than anyone else in this Test match. And boy, there have been quite a few standout performances. Centuries for Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal in the first innings, after which Ollie Pope scored a hundred of his own and Harry Brook dominated India with a stroke-filled 99. But there’s something about Pant that hits differently. If he was not entertaining enough with his stump mic chatter behind the wickets, Pant really took the word showmanship to the top tier when he held the bat in his hand.
If Pant’s first-innings knock was entirely hammer and tongs, his second-innings ton was divided into two halves. He walked in to bat early on Day 4 after one of India’s overnight batters, Shubman Gill, chopped on in the very first over of the day. The first half an hour was nerve-wracking. Like he did in the first innings, Pant charged down the wicket off the second ball he faced, but luckily survived due to a thick top edge for four. A few overs later, Pant was being… well… Pant. He slog swept Josh Tongue in a heart-in-the-mouth moment, and two balls later, again attempted an outrageous scoop. England took the review, but Pant survived due to an inside edge. That, as it turned out, proved to be a wake-up call for the man.
Rahul walked up to have a word with him, and Dinesh Karthik was on commentary, badgering Pant. But the pep talk that worked for him was the one he had with himself. At the non-striker’s end, Pant’s self-talk, which got caught on the stump mic, heard him say, “Tez ball hai Rishabh, maarna hai toh seedha lag jaayega naa iss ball pe, kuch alag karne ki zarurat nahi hai,” Pant can be heard as saying to himself, as explained by Karthik.
And that was the tonic he needed. Since that incident, Pant completely shut shop, taking no risks whatsoever and safely guiding India to 153/3 at lunch. With the ball talking and doing quite a bit, with Tongue, Brydon Carse and even Ben Stokes creating chances, India, with just 159 ahead, with seven wickets left, could not breathe easy. Once he returned after the break, all hell broke loose. Pant unleashed fury, smoking 11 fours and three sixes to deflate the England bowling attack. In between, Rahul, whose golden touch was a sight to behold, was forced to play second fiddle, with Pant going berserk at the other end.