Rishabh Pant treated James Anderson as if he was a spinner: Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar, the former Indian cricketer, was impressed with Rishabh Pant’s batting in the second day’s play of India’s fourth and final Test against England. Pant notched his second Test ton at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad and bailed India out of a precarious position. The southpaw scored 101 runs off 118 balls before falling prey to fast bowler James Anderson.

His knock was laced with 13 fours and two sixes and on the back of his performance, the hosts are leading by 89 runs in their first innings. Gavaskar was also left awestruck with Pant’s tactics against Anderson. When the England pacer took the second new ball, Pant used his feet and smashed him for a four after which he reverse swept the veteran speedster over the slip cordon.

Gavaskar heaps praise on Rishabh Pant

“As he approached his hundred and as the second new ball came, he treated Anderson as if he was a spinner. A reverse-sweep against him, incredible batting. It was so good to see that he didn’t miss out on a hundred this time,” Gavaskar told to India Today.

It was Pant’s partnership of 113 runs with Washington Sundar for the seventh wicket that helped India to an 89-run lead by the end of the second day. Gavaskar was impressed with how Pant got the measure of the conditions before taking the attack to the opposition bowlers.

“He was dejected after that because he was really looking to take the England attack to the cleaners. It didn’t happen but till then… the partnership between him and Washington Sundar has taken India to safety,” he stated.

“He took the attack by the scruff of the neck. But before that, he was actually sussing everything out, what the pitch is doing, what the bowlers are doing.”

“He recognised the fact that England were handicapped by the fact that they didn’t have too much confidence in their off-spinner Dom Bess. They were restricted to only 3 bowlers plus Joe Root and therefore, he took his time,” Gavaskar added.

Apart from Pant, Sundar also excelled with the bat, scoring 60 runs with eight fours and staying unbeaten. Rohit Sharma also chipped in with 49 useful runs at the top of the order before getting out to Ben Stokes.