Rishabh Pant dances his way down the track to climb into Test cricket with a six

Rishabh Pant’s unflinching approach while batting has captured the imaginations of the supporters in white-ball cricket. He has made a mockery of the best of bowling lineups on the backs of his belligerent style of batsmanship. The same was also on show when he plied his trade for Delhi Daredevils in the cash-rich Indian Premier League where he has been able to find the boundaries at will.

However, Test cricket is a different ballgame altogether and needs a more cautious approach to be employed. After getting dropped from the Indian team back in March, his future seemed a tad bleak. However, he didn’t drop the gun and made his way into the India ‘A’ team and thereafter went on to make his way into the Indian Test squad for the tour of England.

Pant picks the bone out of Rashid

After having to sit out in the first two matches at Edgbaston and Lord’s respectively, he was drafted into the eleven in the third Test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham. Dinesh Karthik’s awful form also helped his cause of getting into the team. The 20-year-old came to bat after Virat Kohli perished for 97 runs. Jangling nerves were expected as far as Pant was concerned.

Nevertheless, he showed no signs of the same initially, not at least in the first two deliveries. He defended Rashid in his first delivery in Tests. The second ball came as a bolt from the blue for Rashid. Pant danced down the wicket and deposited the leg-break bowler over long on. The tweaker tossed the leather and the batsman’s eyes lit up on seeing the delivery.

He didn’t have any inhibitions and muscled the ball into the stands. The shot caught everyone in utter bewilderment and Rashid couldn’t comprehend the disrespect shown to him by Pant and he threw a perplexed look. In the meantime, the wicketkeeper-batsman also became the first Indian batsman to open his account in Test cricket with a six and the 12th overall batter.

Here is the video

Rishabh Pant to miss the next match after being awarded 4 demerit points for that insult shot off his second ball in test cricket. Adil Rashid delivers a viral worthy gif face. #ENGvIND #INDvENG #Trentbridgetest #RishabhPant #adilrashid pic.twitter.com/YIMLKVChCP

— Marirs Malahcatiknev (@SriramVenkit) August 18, 2018

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