Bhubaneswar: Rishabh Pant who played a brilliant match-winning innings to seal a historic victory for India at the Gabba in Brisbane also created a new record. In the course of his innings, Rishabh Pant became the seventh Indian wicketkeeper-batsman to score 1,000 Test runs. Pant achieved the feat when he scored just one run in the second innings. He is the quickest among the Indian wicket-keeper batsman to achieve the feat. The earlier record belonged to MS Dhoni.
Pant came into the fourth and final Test against Australia with 976 Test runs in his kitty. In the first innings he had scored 23 runs. So when he opened his account in the second innings he reached the milestone of 1,000 Test runs 26 innings. Dhoni had achieved the feat in 32 Test innings.
Other Indian wicketkeeper-batsmen who have reached the 1,000 run milestone are Farokh Engineer (36 innings), Wriddhiman Saha (37 innings), Nayan Mongia (39 innings), Syed Kirmani (45 innings), and Kiran More (50 innings).
Pant was promoted ahead of Mayank Agarwal as India went in for the kill after Shubman Gill had set the platform for victory with a fine innings of 91. While Cheteshwar Pujara (56) held one end, Pant went for the Australian bowlers from the other. However, in this innings Pant was very judicious about his shot selection. He played very cautiously but was always ready to punish the loose deliveries. It was his 53-run stand for the sixth wicket with Washington Sundar that set up victory for India. Fittingly it was Pant who hit the winning stroke, a boundary through mid-off off Josh Hazlewood.
For a person who came from Uttarakhand to Delhi 6-7 years back and did not have a place to stay, Pant has indeed come a long way. As long as the history of Indian cricket is written Pant will be forever a part of it. This unbeaten innings of 89 has given Pant a permanent place in the annals of Indian cricket.
