Sri Lanka vs India, 3rd Test Match: 5 Talking Points

2. Pandya- India’s answer to Ben Stokes

Hardik Pandya had a game to remember as he struck his maiden ton in the whites for India. He also picked up a wicket to go with it. After losing Yadav, all hell broke loose for Pandya as he attacked the Sri Lankans with his power hitting. He scored 26 off a single over from Malinda Pushpakumara. Pandya first scored a couple of boundaries off the first two balls of the over and then followed it up with three successive maximums in the next three deliveries.

The Baroda all-rounder scored the fastest century in Test Cricket (in 86 balls), coming in at number 8, as he scored 106 off just 96 deliveries, at a strike rate of 112.5, smashing eight boundaries and seven sixes. The first fifty of his innings came off 61 deliveries, while the second fifty came off just 25. 48 of them in the second half of his innings came through boundaries. With this performance, the Indians can now breathe a sigh of relief to find a genuine seaming all rounder along the standards of Mitchell Marsh, Ben Stokes and Andre Russell.