Twitter Reactions: Rishabh Pant’s valiant half-century puts India on command in 4th Test

After a string of low scores, Rishabh Pant played an innings of substance and tightened India’s grip over the ongoing fourth Test at the Kennington Oval in London. Interestingly, Pant, who’s known for his aggressive batting style, was watchful during the course of his knock and the cricket fraternity was impressed. Overall, the young southpaw slammed 50 off 106 balls before falling prey to England spinner Moeen Ali.

It was indeed a test of Pant’s character as he has been short of runs lately. While he got some starts in the previous matches this series, the dasher couldn’t play a substantial knock. Pant was particularly criticized for being ‘reckless’ as on multiple occasions, he got out while going for a big shot. In fact, many fans and experts even claimed the 23-year-old is not suitable for the purest of the game.

Rishabh Pant recorded his first half-century of the series

However, Pant shut down all his critics by bringing up his first half-century of this series. For the unversed, the wicketkeeper-batter came to bat at number seven in India’s second innings. With the scorecard reading 296/5, the visitors seemed in a comfortable position. However, things changed after skipper Virat Kohli got out.

With only four wickets in the kitty, Pant had the onus of batting with the tail-enders. Also, India’s lead was 213 runs when Kohli was dismissed. Hence, his failure could have seen India succumbing to a below-par score. Nevertheless, Pant embraced this challenge and showed great application against the red cherry.

As mentioned above, he opted for a different approach and allowed himself to be cautious. Although the southpaw was tackling the challenging deliveries with precision, he didn’t mind dispatching the loose ones over the ropes. It must be noted that Pant got a substantial partner in Shardul Thakur, who scored his second fifty of the game.

The duo added 100 runs for the seventh wicket and took India’s lead over 300. After reaching the fifty, Pant tried to up the ante by playing a big shot off Moeen Ali. However, the connection was far from proper as the off-spinner accepted an easy return catch. Nevertheless, his efforts put Team India in command and netizens heaped praises on him.

Meanwhile, let’s look at how Twitterati reacted to Pant’s efforts: