Rishabh Pant continues to be the favourite of all. Hence, it is no surprise that even former India captain Sunil Gavaskar was waiting to see the southpaw bring out his trademark somersault celebration following his century in the second innings of the first Test against England on Day 4. Pant is now just the second player in the history of the game to score twin centuries in a Test as a wicketkeeper-batter.
As soon as Pant completed his century in the second innings, the entire crowd was waiting to see if the 27-year-old would bring out the somersault, just like he did in the first innings, after bringing up the three-figure mark.
Rather, Rishabh Pant signalled towards Gavaskar, probably saying “some time later” when the latter requested a somersault celebration.
Speaking about Rishabh Pant on the Sony Sports Network after Stumps on Day 4, Gavaskar said, “Very, very happy. I mean, anytime an Indian does well, you feel very happy because you know the passion for cricket in India, how just about every, in every family, I’m sure there is at least one person who, it might not be everybody, at least one person who follows the game.”
“And therefore to make that family happy, if you can do well, if India does well, then naturally it is, it’s a great feeling. And so to see this young kid, come back, I mean, look what had happened to him with all those, with that crash,” he added.
It must be mentioned that Rishabh Pant brought out a completely new celebration after scoring a century in the second innings as he made a gesture signalling towards his eye.
“Can you explain what that celebration is? Do you know what that is? I was waiting for that flip as well. I was rather disappointed on commentary when he didn’t produce a double flip. Knowing Rishabh, he’s always going to try to improve his celebrations, but I guess your celebration is probably taking this bit,” said former England captain Michael Vaughan.
Replying to Vaughan, Gavaskar said, “No, this is, I think that’s basically, thanking the gods above. He had something on his eye. He kind of put us on the signal.”
In the end, Sunil Gavaskar also joked about how he could do a backstand back in the day and how he pondered over pulling out the celebration during the Headingley Test.
“You know what, I’ve got to confess that after that I came here and I, and I tried not to do the backflip, no chance of, at my age, but I used to do the backstand and I was looking to do the backstand,” said Gavaskar.
“So if I could do it successfully then, then I would have shown it here, but I wasn’t able to,” he added.
Headingley Test can go anywhere
Rishabh Pant’s innings, along with KL Rahul’s gritty century, helped ensure India set a healthy target of 371 in front of England in the fourth and final innings of the Headingley Test.
The duo formed a 195-run stand for the fourth wicket, and their partnership was the major reason India reached 364 in the second innings.
At stumps on Day 4, England’s score read 21/0, with the hosts still needing 350 runs for the win. Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett are unbeaten on 12 and 9 respectively.
In the second innings, India were bowled out for 364. Josh Tongue and Brydon Carse took three wickets each for England.
