Rishabh Pant surpasses MS Dhoni as the fastest Indian to 50 wicketkeeping dismissals

Rishabh Pant made his Test debut last year against England at the Trent Bridge in Nottingham. He replaced a terribly out-of-form Dinesh Karthik in the lineup. Ever since, he has flourished in the format, having already scored a couple of centuries at the Kennington Oval, London and at the Sydney Cricket Ground. In Test cricket, he got off the mark with a stunning six off Adil Rashid.

Amidst his impressive shows with the bat in hand, his prowess with the keeping gloves came under the scanner a number of times. The southpaw used to concede a number of byes, something which drew him a lot of brickbats from the netizens. However, the 21-year-old has left the miseries behind and has developed himself, so much so that he has now surpassed the legendary MS Dhoni.

Rishabh Pant overtakes MS Dhoni

Pant is currently in the West Indies, playing the second Test at Sabina Park, Jamaica. In the ongoing encounter, he became the fastest Indian to accomplish 50 dismissals as the keeper. The 38-year-old Dhoni took 15 games to get to the milestone. But it took only 11 matches for Pant to overhaul MSD. Pant got to the feat when he took Kraig Brathwaite’s catch in the second innings off Ishant Sharma.

But Pant is behind Jonny Bairstow, Mark Boucher and Tim Paine, all of whom carved the record in only 10 encounters. Pant is being seen for the future of Indian cricket. Recently, MSK Prasad-led Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said that Dhoni won’t be India’s number one keeper after the World Cup. Rather, Pant will be their choice while Dhoni will help in the transition process.

Apart from the Test series, Pant was also a part of the T20I and ODI series in the Caribbean Islands, though he couldn’t quite show consistency. Pant also played the mega event in England and Wales after being roped in as a replacement of Shikhar Dhawan, who was ruled out due to a thumb injury.

Pant was also picked for the three-match T20I series against South Africa, which gets underway on September 15. India will also play a couple of T20 World Cups in 2020 and 2021 in Australia and India respectively and the Uttarakhand-born has a huge responsibility ahead of him.

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