Birmingham: Rishabh Pant has given Team India a platform from where they can push hard for victory in the rescheduled fifth and final Test against England at Edgbaston.
The wicketkeeper-batsman followed up his brilliant counter-attacking 146 off just 11 balls in the first innings with a composed knock of 57 in the second as India set the home team a victory target of 378 runs.
The aggressive left-hander thus made 193 runs in the match to become the highest aggregate scorer in a Test in England by a visiting wicketkeeper.
He surpassed the 72-year-old record set by West Indian Clyde Walcott, who aggregated 182 runs in the Lord’s Test in 1950, tweeted leading statistician Mohandas Menon.
The previous best for India in a Test on English soil was 151 runs (77 & 74*) by Mahendra Singh Dhoni — also at Birmingham, in the 2011 series.
Pant also became only the second Indian wicketkeeper to hit a century and fifty in the same Test match after Farokh Engineer, who totalled 187 runs (121 & 66) against England at Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium in 1973.
Along with his batting, Pant’s work behind the stumps has also come up by leaps and bounds. He pouched three catches behind the stumps in England’s first innings when they managed 284.
