Indian cricketer Rishabh Pant was in high spirits as he kept on chirping behind the stumps. With his comments and suggestions, Pant managed to keep India on high alert as fans were entertained with his comments.
After an impressive outing in Australia, the team management went ahead with Pant for the first test in Chennai. Usually, Saha has been India’s first choice keeper in India but Pant has proved his mettle in the recently concluded series.
Indian bowlers have toiled hard to get wickets on first day. After winning the toss, England decided to bat first and have managed to get the best out of the wicket. The previous series against Sri Lanka have helped English batters to get good measure of turn on this wicket.
When the going went tough, Pant was constantly motivating bowlers to work harder. He also put on couple of jokes during the day, as Indian team left in high spirits. When Ashwin was bowling to Joe Burns, he said: “Idhar se badhiya hai, Udhar se phasega to maza aaega” (It will be fun to see him get trapped from that side)
‘Chalo yaar, Dheele nahin’ (Come on guys, no loose moments), ‘Koi dikkat nahi hai’ (There’s no problem), ‘Sidha rakho Ash bhai’ (Keep it straight, Ash) were some of the comments that he made throughout the day.
Watch Pant’s high voltage comments here
On the other hand, English batters were on top for most parts of the day. Especially Joe Root and Sibley batted brilliantly as they wore out Indian spinners and churned runs whenever possible.
Root completed his third century in as many test matches and continued to dominate Indian bowlers. He finished the day with an unbeaten 128 and will probably look to score a double on the second day.
Sibley was also brilliant as he ensured there is no further damage after losing two wickets in first session. The opener batted out throughout the day but fell to a brilliant delivery from Jasprit Bumrah in the final over of the day.
England looked strong at stumps but a comeback from India can never be taken out. The spinners could not get their lines right. Apart from Ashwin, the other spinners left much to be desired.
