After being asked to bat first against England in the rescheduled fifth Test at Edgbaston in Birmingham, India were in a spot of bother at 98/5 when Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja stitched a 222-run partnership for the sixth wicket to put the innings back on track. Pant smashed a 146 off 111 balls while his partner Jadeja scored 104 runs. The duo changed the game on its head to help India post a total of 416 runs on the board before the side got bundled out.
Pant raced to his fifth Test hundred in only 89 balls before scoring another 46 runs off 22 balls. His innings was laced with 20 fours and four sixes, while his strike rate was 131.53.
Pant’s knock helped him gain a lot of praise from the cricket fraternity but former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif went a step ahead to call the Indian batter “the Brian Lara of wicketkeepers”.
“He (Rishabh Pant) is the Brian Lara of wicketkeepers. This match is taking place in Birmingham, the same place where Brian Lara scored 501 for Warwickshire. You must have seen his (Lara’s) glimpses in Pant’s knock today (Friday). Pant has limited feet movement, but he can pick the ball early,” Latif said on his official YouTube channel.
“He let the ball come to him. 2-3 shots that he played towards midwicket against fast bowlers were outstanding. England tried to put pressure with four slips and a gully, which meant there weren’t enough fielders outside. Pant never stopped whenever he got any chance (to score),” said Latif.
Talking about the match, India reduced England to 84/5 on Day 3 to see the hosts trailing by 332 runs at Stumps on Saturday, Jasprit Bumrah returned figures of 3/35 while Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj claimed a wicket each.
