India vs England: Rishabh Pant hits 3rd hundred, grabs 2nd spot from Rohit Sharma for most Test runs in 2021

India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant on Friday scored his third Test hundred in the ongoing match against England in Ahmedabad to bail his team out of trouble in at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Pant brought up his first hundred of 2021 and first in India with a six off Joe Root in the final session on Day 2 of the fourth and final Test. Interestingly, Pant had scored his maiden century against England at The Oval on his first overseas Test tour in 2018.

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The 23-year-old also went past Rohit Sharma on the list of most runs in Test cricket in 2021 to grab the second spot behind Joe Root. The English skipper has 764 runs from 6 Tests so far while Pant is next with 515 runs from 6 Tests at 64.37 with 1 hundred and 4 fifties.

Root and Pant are the only two batsmen to have scored over 500 runs in this calendar year in red-ball cricket.

Pant came to the crease after the loss of Ajinkya Rahane’s wicket at the stroke of Lunch with India struggling at 80 for 4.

He then forged two crucial partnerships with Rohit Sharma (49) and Ravichandran Ashwin (13) worth 41 and 25 runs for the 5th and 6th wickets before joining forces with Washington Sundar to take India past England’s first innings score of 205 in the third session.

India had lost 5 wickets in the first two sessions before Pant and Sundar took charge of the innings and took them from 146 for 6 to 259 for 7 with the hosts ahead by 52 runs. The duo stitched a 113-run partnership for the 7th wicket before Pant got out for 101 to James Anderson.

Pant played his natural game right from the time he came to the crease, hitting 12 fours and 2 sixes before going back to the dressing room.