ENG vs IND: Paul Collingwood hails Rishabh Pant's 'world-class' ton in rescheduled Test

England’s assistant coach Paul Collingwood has hailed “world-class” Rishabh Pant after an “exciting” first day of the rescheduled fifth Test match at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Collingwood stated that one has to applaud, watching someone as exciting as Pant. The Indian wicketkeeper-batter took England bowlers by storm on Day 1, scoring 146 off 111 balls, and helping India recover from their initial setback.

Collingwood also stressed that the team was not intimidated by India’s comeback as he felt it was just the nature of the game that wickets were hard to come by once the ball became soft after 30-40 overs. He also spoke about head coach Brendon McCullum’s vision for Test cricket, which is to make it entertaining for the format to survive.

“Today was a great day, I don’t feel our backs were against the wall for too long, but hats off to the way Pant played,” said Collingwood, in a press conference. “When you are up against world-class players, they can do world-class things,” he added. 

It’s been another exciting day of Test cricket: Paul Collingwood

Speaking of how the game panned out, England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bowl first. India started with a new opening pair, Shubman Gill and Cheteshwar Pujara, with Hanuma Vihari to follow. The weather conditions, to begin with, were overcast with rain spells on the cards. Making full use of the conditions, English fast bowlers James Anderson and Matthew Potts were on top of the Indian top-order batters. The duo picked up the first five wickets between them within 28 overs, and then came the Indian recovery with Pant and Ravindra Jadeja on the crease.

“It’s been another exciting day of Test cricket, we’ve had three exciting games against New Zealand and the day here has been exactly the same. Brendon has said from the very start he’s looking at the bigger picture of Test cricket and for it to survive we’ve got to make it a lot more entertaining,” said the England assistant coach. 

“I wouldn’t necessarily say we went wrong today, but what we’ve found is once the ball goes soft after 30-40 overs it can be very difficult to take wickets if it’s not going off straight,” added Collingwood.

After losing five wickets for 98, the partnership of Pant and Jadeja added 222 runs for the sixth wicket. At the end of the day’s play, Jadeja remained unbeaten on 83 with India’s score being 338/7 in 73 overs.