Edgbaston saw a light-hearted but telling exchange between England’s centurion Jamie Smith and India’s Rishabh Pant on Day 4 of the ongoing Test. With Pant batting fluently alongside Shubman Gill, Smith, who was keeping wickets, cheekily reminded Pant that the record for the fastest century in Tests was 55 balls. Pant, with a grin, simply replied, “I’m not greedy for records. If it happens, it happens.”LIVE Score: India vs England 2nd Test Day 4 True to his words, Pant batted in his trademark fearless style without forcing the pace for milestones. He ended with a lively 65 off 58 balls, studded with eight boundaries and three sixes. More importantly, he stitched together a crucial 100-run stand with Gill, who himself is rewriting records in this series with three centuries, including that epic 269 in the first innings.This knock from Pant showed once again how he never holds back from backing his instincts as India’s fearless wicketkeeper-batter. True to his style, he kept the scoreboard ticking at a brisk pace, but in the process, he did take a risky option that cost him his wicket just as he looked set to push on for an even bigger milestone.
Earlier in the series, Pant had hammered two centuries and continues to be India’s middle-order game-changer in red-ball cricket. His ability to lift the scoring rate while respecting the conditions is proving priceless for India in this marathon series against England. At the time of writing, India lead by 564 runs with Shubman Gill approaching 150 and Ravindra Jadeja having completed his half-century. It will be interesting to see when India decides to declare.
