12 Facts about Rishabh Pant: The rising star of Indian cricket

Rishabh Pant has slowly been rising as the next big thing in Indian cricket. The wicket-keeper batsman rose to fame with brilliant performances at the U19 level. At his maiden full season in Ranji Trophy, he set the records on fire with consistent brutal batting. With runs coming from his bat at will, the young Delhi lad is bound to excel at the highest level someday.

At such a young age, he is busy tormenting the best bowlers of the domestic circuit. With the Indian team looking for a replacement for MS Dhoni post the 2019 World Cup, Pant has a good case served for himself. The young kid needs to continue performing at the domestic level and the call will surely arrive when the day beckons for him.

Here are some facts about Rishabh Pant:

1. Roots and beginnings

Rishabh Pant was born on October 4, 1997 at Haridwar in Uttarakhand. As a young kid, he swapped cities in a bid to find a good cricket coach. He started off with Roorkee and then moved to Delhi. He had a brief stint in Rajasthan before finally settling in Delhi.

2. Moving to Rajasthan on coach’s advice

At the age of 12, Pant was trained by coach Tarak Sinha, the same coach who coached Shikhar Dhawan. Sinha advised Pant to move to Rajasthan from Delhi in search of better opportunities. He did exactly that and represented Rajasthan at U14 and U16 level.

3. Thrown out of the academy

Incidentally, Rishabh Pant faced an ouster from the Rajasthan cricket circle for being an ‘outsider’. This happened after Pant had already played age group cricket in Rajasthan. That did not bog down the spirits of the young man and he continued to play with full zeal.

4. Back to Delhi with a bang

Rishabh Pant moved back to Delhi after his Rajasthan ouster. Barely months before his 18th birthday, he made his First-Class debut for Delhi. He completed his last two years of schooling in Delhi. He scored 57 on his First Class debut second innings against Bengal in 2015.

5. Excelling at the U19s

Pant was named in the India U19 squad for the ICC U19 World Cup 2016 held at Bangladesh. He proved to be the standout performer for India as India U19 finished as the runner-up of the tournament. He hit 3 consecutive fifties in the tournament.

6. Fastest fifty in U19 World Cup

In the same tournament, he hit the fastest fifty at U19 international level. He smacked a fifty in just 18 balls against Nepal. He ended up with a score of 78 off 24 balls. In the next match against Namibia U19, he scored 111 off 96 balls to guide India U19 to finals.

7. The IPL connect

On the day when Pant scored a hundred against Namibia U19, he was bought by the Delhi Daredevils in the IPL for a whopping 1.9 crore rupees.

8. Idolizes the genius

Rishabh Pant is an ardent fan of former Australian wicket-keeper batsman Adam Gilchrist. No wonder why he incorporated a similar style of play.

9. Third youngest triple century in Ranji Trophy

Pant hammered a brilliant 308 off just 326 balls in the Ranji encounter against Maharashtra in the 2016-17 season. He became the third youngest batsman after Wasim Jaffer and Abhinav Mukund to hit a Ranji triple. He also became the second wicket-keeper to do so.

10. Close to a legend

His knock of 308 is the second highest for Delhi in First Class cricket after Raman Lamba’s 312 in 1994.

11. Scoring the fastest Ranji ton

In the 2016-17 season, he smashed the fastest Ranji Trophy century. His century came off just 48 balls against Jharkhand.

12. On a six-hitting spree

In the match when he scored the fastest ton in Ranji history, Pant clobbered 21 sixes. This remains to be the second highest number of sixes hit by a batsman in First Class cricket in India.