Rishabh Pant faced 29 balls before England all-rounder Moeen Ali dismissed him for a duck.
India's wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant. (Photo: AFP)
Rishabh Pant, who scripted history in his Test debut by becoming the first ever Indian cricketer to score a six on the second ball of his debut match, joined the company of Irfan Pathan and Suresh Raina in a unique record on Friday.
During the second innings of the fourth Test match against England, Pant faced 29 balls before England all-rounder Moeen Ali dismissed him for a duck. Irfan Pathan and Suresh Raina, too, had faced 29 balls before going out for a duck.
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Speaking to Deccan Chronicle about Pant’s unique feat, Pathan said, “Cricket is a funny game and has different situation in different matches,” adding, “In my case (second innings), staying at the wicket was more important than scoring runs because we had to save the Test (against Pakistan at Bangalore in 2005).”
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India had, however, lost the Test match by 168 runs.
“Pant is a young player and a good learner of the game. If he took more time in this Test, maybe it was difficult to face the balls,” Pathan added.
Earlier, in the third Test match, Pant scripted history by taking five catches in a single innings. With that, he became the first Asian wicketkeeper-batsman to bag five catches in a one innings in his debut match and fourth Indian keeper to take five catches in his very first match.
He achieved this feat by taking the catches of Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Ollie Pope, Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid.
Pant has joined the elite club of Naren Tamhane (vs Pakistan in 1955), Kiran More (vs England in 1986) and Naman Ojha (vs Sri Lanka in 2015), all of whom took five catches on their debut in the longest format of the game.
Pant is India’s 291st Test player.
-With PTI inputs.
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