India wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant smashed 89 balls century in the ongoing fifth Test against England at the Edgbaston, Birmingham on Friday. With this century, the southpaw not just rescues Team India after a top-order collapse but also becomes the first Indian wicket-keeper batsman to score two centuries on English soil. Pant also broke the record for the fastest century by an Indian wicket-keeper batsman in England. He now holds the record for the third-fastest century by an Indian outside Asia.
Cometh the hour, cometh Rishabh Pant
#WTC23 | #ENGvIND | Scorecard: https://t.co/wMZK8kesdD pic.twitter.com/98uhYv99Qh
— ICC (@ICC) July 1, 2022
Fastest Test 100s for India outside Asia
78 balls V Sehwag v WI Gros Islet 2006
88 balls M Azharuddin v Eng Lord’s 1990
89 balls R PANT v Eng Edgbaston 2022
Pant also became the only Indian wicketkeeper-batsman to score two overseas hundred in a calendar year. Earlier, W Saha, MS Dhoni and Budhi Kunderan had achieved this feat. With this century Pant completed his fourth hundred overseas in just 23 matches while all the other Indian wicket-keepers had scored four in 260 Tests.
Two Test 100s in a calendar year by an Indian WK
Budhi Kunderan in 1964
MS Dhoni in 2009
W Saha in 2017
Rishabh Pant in 2022 *
Centuries by Indian keepers in overseas Tests
4 – Rishabh Pant (23 matches)
4 – All other combined (260 matches)
Along with Pant, Ravindra Jadeja also smashed a fifty. The duo took India’s score from 98/5 to 250. India lost both their openers – Cheteshwar Pujara and Shubhman Gill – inside the first seven overs. While Shreyas Iyer, Virat Kohli and Hanuman Vihari also failed to impress. Veteran pacer James Anderson took three while newcomer Matty Potts removed two Indian batsmen.