We’ve heard people call him irresponsible, careless, reckless, and many similar adjectives. However, one thing we know for sure is that Rishabh Pant is a pure entertainer and has been doing that at the highest level for a couple of years now. Regardless of the format, he brings cheers in the crowds and honestly, beings crowds to the stadiums as well.
In the 2nd Test against Sri Lanka, India was batting in their 2nd innings on only Day 2 of the Pink Ball Test in Bengaluru. He changed the course of the game when he entered, hitting a six off only his second delivery. He brought up an entertaining fifty and the best part about it was that he played counter-attacking on a pitch which wasn’t allowing batsmen to score runs.
Rishabh Pant gets India’s fastest Test fifty
He went on to break an age-old record of the fastest individual fifty by an Indian in Test cricket, beating Kapil Dev’s long standing record of a fifty in 30 balls which he scored way back in 1982 against Pakistan. As many as 40 years later, Pant has gone on to break that record as he scored a 28-ball fifty against Sri Lanka, scoring 7 fours and 2 sixes in that innings.
With balls keeping low randomly and finding poor bounce every now and then, counter-attacking cricket was a must, and who better than Pant to get that done? He tried that in the 1st innings too, ending with 39(26). And he went on to get a few more runs in the second innings, but getting dismissed a few balls after getting the record. Eventually, he was dismissed for 50(31).
Other quickfire Indian fifties have been scored by Shardul Thakur (31 balls) and Virender Sehwag (32 balls) but Pant went on to beat all of them. Given his style of batting, we won’t be surprised if Pant himself goes on to break his own record sometime in the future. Overall on the list of fastest test fifties, this is now the 13th fastest in Test history.
Pant is naturally an attacking batsman and considering he bats lower down the order, he may find many such chances in his career where he can throw caution to the wind and go all out with the bat. In the Indian premier League, he’s scored many such quickfire fifties including a 23-ball fifty in IPL 2018 and a career fastest 18-ball fifty in IPL 2019.
For similar news from the 2022 Sri Lanka tour of India, on Rishabh Pant and his batting antics, and on other cricketing stories and updates from around the world, make sure you keep reading ReadScoops.com…
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