Will Rishabh Pant Break Rahul Dravid’s Special Record In England? Sanjay Manjrekar Says This | Cricket News

Former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar lauded Rishabh Pant for his fantastic performance in the first Test against England at Headingley, Leeds and made a bold prediction about Indian wicketkeeper-batter achieving a special milestone on the ongoing tour.

The 27-year-old Pant, who had scored a fluent 134 in the first innings, followed it up with another fantastic century in the second innings, scoring 118 off 140 with the help of 15 boundaries and 3 sixes on Day 4 of the ongoing first Test against England at Headingley.

With this, Rishabh became the first Indian wicketkeeper to score centuries in both innings of a Test match.

Overall, Pant became the seventh Indian to score centuries in both innings of a Test match, joining an elite list of players featuring Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar (three times), Rahul Dravid (twice), Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma.

“When you look at all of Rishabh Pant’s achievements, the first instinct is to think of him purely as a batter – and understandably so. Because when you’re talking about batting exploits in England, scoring twin hundreds, the names he’s being compared with are legends like Dilip Vengsarkar, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, and Sunil Gavaskar.

“But here’s the remarkable part – he’s also a wicketkeeper. That’s what makes it almost unbelievable. I know someone like Kumar Sangakkara had a phenomenal batting record, but he wasn’t quite the keeper that Rishabh Pant is,” Manjrekar said on JioHotstar.

With his two centuries in the Headingley Test match, Pant’s tally of Test centuries in England reached four, just two shy of Rahul Dravid.

The 59-year-old Manjrekar feels that with four Tests to go in the ongoing series, Pant could match or surpass ex-skipper and coach Dravid to become the Indian batter with the most Test hundreds in England.

“Pant is India’s first and last choice as a wicketkeeper in this Test side – and that says a lot. Now, if you look at the numbers – most hundreds by Indians in Tests in England – Rahul Dravid leads with six. And suddenly, you have Pant’s name in that same elite bracket. And there’s a nice little twist – there are two Rahul’s in this story,” said Manjrekar.

“You’ve got KL Rahul, and you’ve got Rishabh Pant. Who knows, by the time this series is done, Pant could match or even surpass Rahul Dravid. There are still four Tests to go in this series – that’s potentially eight innings for Pant. And he’s already started in near-perfect fashion,” he added.

Pant stitched a brilliant stand of 195 runs for the fourth wicket with KL Rahul, who also scored a crucial century, to put India in a strong position in the ongoing first Test. India were eventually dismissed for 364 in their second innings, setting a total of 371 for England to chase.

Speaking about Rahul’s contribution and technique, Manjrekar said that KL’s batting technique has no visible weakness.

“The only critique of KL Rahul is consistency – a key yardstick for greatness. But purely on batting mechanism, he’s nearly flawless. Whether in Australia, South Africa, England, or New Zealand, his technique has no visible weakness,” he said.

“That’s why he’s the ‘Senapati’ (general) of Indian cricket in SENA countries – with five Test hundreds, second only to Sunil Gavaskar among Asian openers. A remarkable feat, though he’d be the first to admit he wants more runs, more often,” he concluded.