India vs England, 2021: 1st Test, Day 3: Rishabh Pant's nervous 90s; Virat Kohli's ordinary start and more stats

England cricket team has shown brilliant performance against the host India in the 1st Test match of the ongoing 4 match Test series. England continued with their score of 555/8 on the third day and were soon bowled out for 578 runs. Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin picked up three wickets each for India, while Ishant Sharma and Shahbaz Nadeem took two wickets each. India did not start well with the bat, and both the openers Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma could not make it big.

Indian captain Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane too failed leaving India in tatters with a score of 73/4. However, Chesteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant added 119 runs for the sixth wicket to improve the situation. Both the batsmen scored half-centuries with Pujara falling for 73 runs off 143 runs among the two.

Pant played a brilliant counter-attacking inning of 91 runs of 88 balls including 9 fours and 5 sixes, though he missed his well deserved century. India were 257/6 at the end of the day’s play with Ravichandran Ashwin and Washington Sundar at the crease. Dominic Bess was the pick of the bowlers for England who has taken 4 wickets till now.

Let’s look at important stats and numbers after the end of the third day of the first Test match

England put on a mammoth total

578 – England made a mammoth total of 578 runs in the first innings of the match. This is the second-highest score by a visiting team against India since 2010. This is also the second-highest score by England in India.

7 – England’s total of 578 runs is the seventh-highest score by a team in the ongoing World Test championship. Kiwi team is on the top of the list with a total of 659/6 which they scored against Pakistan in January 2021.

Nervous nineties for Rishabh Pant

3 – Rishabh Pant now has three scores in 90s in consecutive innings at home in Test cricket. Pant had earlier played two innings of 92 each in home Tests against West Indies in 2018. He is still searching for his first home century, though he has scored 2 overseas centuries in England and Australia. Earlier, Pant got out for 97 runs against Australia in the Sydney Test.

2 – Rishabh Pant became the second player after Virat Kohli to hit three scores of 50 runs and above in the first three home Test innings.

336 – Rishabh Pant has scored a total of 336 runs in Test cricket in the year 2021. He has scored these runs with an excellent average of 84 including 3 half-centuries. He is second on the list among the players with most Test runs this year. England skipper Joe root is sitting comfortably at the top with 644 runs at an average 128.8 which includes two double centuries.

Ordinary start for Virat Kohli 

18.14 – Virat Kohli could not start well in his first international match of the year, and was dismissed for a score of 11 runs off 48 balls in the match. Virat had missed the last three Test matches of the Australia tour to take paternity leave. He has not been in his usual touch in Test cricket since 2020. He has scored 127 runs in his last 7 Test innings with an average of only 18.14.