Former India coach and Australia cricketer Greg Chappell has heaped praise on Rishabh Pant after the wicketkeeper-batter’s record-setting twin hundreds at Headingley, calling him a game-changer and comparing his impact to that of Australian great Adam Gilchrist. Pant, now India’s Test vice-captain, became only the second wicketkeeper-batter in history after Zimbabwe’s Andy Flower to score a century in each innings of a Test match. His explosive batting was one of the standout performances in the series opener at Headingley, even though India fell by five wickets to the hosts on Day 5. “The beauty of it (Pant’s batting) is that he gets his runs at a very fast rate, which gives you time to win cricket matches. It was a phenomenal performance; some of the shots that he played probably weren’t in the MCC coaching manual when I last looked at it,” Chappell said at an event in Mumbai. Chappell believes Pant is revolutionising Test batting with a fearless approach that makes the best use of modern bats and the 27-year-old’s vey own natural flair.
“He is reinventing the game as a batter. You know, modern technology, the bats are very different. You can play shots that weren’t possible with the old bats. But man, he’s exciting to watch,” he added. Pant’s ability to keep bowlers guessing also impressed Chappell. “You never quite know what to expect from the first ball at any stage. He’s likely to jump down the wicket to the pacers, or he’ll play the falling ramp shot. You never quite know what to expect, so it keeps the opposition on their toes,” he explained.
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Recalling his early impressions of the left-hander, Chappell said, “When I first saw him, he was a different sort of player, of course, but he reminded me very much of Adam Gilchrist.” Pant’s twin hundreds also saw him rise to a career-best seventh in the ICC Test rankings for batters. India will look to make the best use of his explosive form in the second Test set to commence on July 2. A win would bring the visitors level in the series.
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