LEEDS, England — Rishabh Pant reached a century and captain Shubman Gill got his highest score before India lost four wickets to England on the second morning of the test series opener Saturday at Headingley.
India was 454-7 at lunch after adding 95 runs in the session for the loss of Gill on 147, Pant on 134, Karun Nair for a duck and Shardul Thakur on 1.
The wickets were shared by captain Ben Stokes, Shoaib Bashir and Josh Tongue in a profitable morning by England despite the pitch being recognized as a batters' paradise.
Stokes continued to find some swing and removed Nair then Thakur on the stroke of lunch.
Gill resumed on 127 and soon passed his highest test score of 128 in 2023 against Australia at Ahmedabad. But he took a back seat to his vice captain Pant, who moved from 65 overnight into the 90s with hacks, mistimed and unorthodox shots that entertained.
Pant has been out seven times in the 90s, and he inched to 99. The common sense play would be to reach the hundred with a single, but in typical Pant fashion he hoicked a six off Bashir over cow corner.
He celebrated his seventh test hundred and third against England with a somersault in his pads but without his helmet.
It was the third time he's reached a hundred with a six, tied on India's list with Rohit Sharma, and behind only Sachin Tendulkar, who did it six times. Pant's hundred also made him the India wicketkeeper with the most, seven, leaving behind Mahendra Singh Dhoni.