Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant came out with an aggressive batting approach in India’s second innings on Day 2 of the fifth Test of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT). Rishabh Pant surpassed legendary cricketers like Chris Gayle, Sir Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, and Rohit Sharma in an elite list of batters.
In Frame: Rishabh Pant
Scott Boland dismissed Virat Kohli, who scored just six runs, on the first ball of the 14th over of India’s second innings. Rishabh Pant then entered at No. 5 when the Indian cricket team was struggling at 59/3. On his very first delivery, Pant charged down the pitch and smashed Boland for a six over long-on.
It was the seventh instance of an Indian batter hitting a six off the first ball of an innings in Test cricket, with Pant becoming only the second player to do so in an away Test. The left-handed batter continued his assault against Australia with four boundaries and reached his half-century mark off 29 balls, the second fastest by an Indian ever.
The southpaw scored 61 runs off 33 balls with the help of six boundaries and four sixes. Australia skipper Pat Cummins dismissed Pant to give a much-needed breakthrough for his team. Pant has set a new record for the most Test sixes by a visiting batter in Australia, surpassing Chris Gayle’s tally.
Pant now leads the list, followed by Chris Gayle and Viv Richards with 12 each. Stuart Broad smashed 11, while Clive Lloyd and Rohit Sharma have 10 each. Pant has also climbed into the top 4 in India’s all-time list for most Test sixes, with 73* to his name in the longest international format of the game.
Yashasvi Jaiswal magic factor
In this match, Yashasvi Jaiswal made a special record in his name. India has been playing Test cricket since 1932 and this has happened for the first time in its 92-year history. Yashasvi made this record by thrashing Australia’s Mitchell Starc. He scored 22 runs in 35 balls with the help of four fours in the second innings of the Sydney Test. With this, he joined the special club of Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag.
As soon as India’s second innings started, Yashasvi changed gears and scored 16 runs in Starc’s first over. He hit four fours in Starc’s first over. He hit a four on the second, third, fourth and sixth ball of the over and scored 16 runs. This is the first time in India’s Test history that India has scored so many runs in an innings of a match. This is the highest number of runs scored by an Indian batsman in the first over of a Test innings.
Yashasvi ended this series with 391 runs in 10 innings. His average during this period was 43.44. He scored one century and two half-centuries during this period. This was his first Test series in Australia. He is in fourth place in terms of Indian openers scoring the most runs in their first Test series in Australia. Murali Vijay scored 482 runs in 2014/15, Virender Sehwag scored 464 runs in 2003/04 and Sunil Gavaskar scored 450 runs in his debut Test series in 1977/78.
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