At the same Old Trafford, a ‘new’ Pant showed up in a completely new way. Pant has emerged as a pure match winner and the Indian team management will be happy to see his momentum going into the upcoming T20 World Cup. The team’s former head coach and former cricketer Ravi Shastri was very impressed with Pant’s innings.
The right mix of control and attack
Ravi Shastri described Pant as a player who has the ability to entertain cricket watchers across all formats of the game. Shastri said, “He is a great player for global cricket. He has the ability to entertain people in all formats. It was a special century, as India were out of the match at one point, but his special innings brought India back into the match.
I will remember this innings of mine for the rest of my life. When I was at the crease, there was no thought running through my mind. I was trying to focus on just one ball at a time. You always aspire to play like this when your team is in trouble. I also did what other players have been doing. I pulled the team out in tough times and helped them get the series.
Rishabh Pant
Pant took 71 balls to complete his half-century and then went on to score runs at a brisk pace, taking only 35 balls to convert that half-century into a century. After reaching his century, Pant hit fast bowler David Willey for five fours in the same over. Pant ended the match by hitting a four with a reverse sweep off Joe Root. The left-handed batsman showed the right mix of control and attack to clinch the series win for India.
brought to an end
Former India cricketer Wasim Jaffer was surprised by Pant’s innings and performance. He said that it is good to see that the left-handed batsman is playing a fine innings in the series-changing match. Jaffer said, “Rishabh Pant has been in excellent form and has already played some incredible innings in his short career. It is wonderful to see how the series changing innings at the age of just 24 are playing out. He has played two outstanding innings in this short tour of England. While the result didn’t go in India’s favor in the Test match where he scored a century, he made sure this time around to finish the match.
Rishabh Pant has started to mature more in terms of cricket intelligence. Now watching the fielders play the shots as well as being able to change the strike, thereby improving cricketing intelligence.
Ravi Shastri, Former Head Coach
Superhit on foreign grounds
Now Rishabh Pant has made his name for the highest score in all formats of Indian wicketkeeper on foreign soil. In Tests in the year 2019, he played an unbeaten innings of 159 runs against Australia, which is the highest Test score by an Indian wicketkeeper on foreign soil. Apart from this, his unbeaten innings of 125* in ODIs against England and 65 runs in T20Is on the tour of Windies in 2019 is the highest score by an Indian wicketkeeper outside home.
Special gift given to Shastri
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri was gifted a champagne bottle by Rishabh Pant for India’s ODI series win. In a video that has gone viral on social media, Pant is seen running up to former coach Shastri, shook hands with him and both of them hugged each other. After this, Pant gifted Shastri a bottle of champagne. He got this bottle as the player of the match.
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