A Cricket post … more so
about the exploits of that diminutive pocket powerhouse !! whose shots are
undefined, refreshing, he is a chatterbox too !!!
Tests may
not be that interesting for those who are tuned to IPL and the T20 format .. the
Galle Test was India's 600th match in the longer format, making them the third
team to feature in that many Tests. They have now won each of their 300th,
400th, 500th and 600th Tests. They now have 188 Test wins, the
joint-fourth-most by any team. Today - Manav
Suthar performance of 10 for 131 ensured that the end was swift.
Salim Durrani, the
darling of the crowd of yesteryears, reportedly could hit six whenever the
crowd chanted !! Remember day 1 of Dec 1976
Test no. 787 a 6 dayer at
Chepauk, against New Zealand - Bishansingh Bedi was the captain. Glenn Turner was the Captain for the visitors.
Indians were off to a bad start as Sunil Gavaskar and Anshuman Gaekwad were out
with only 3 on board, both out to big burly Lance Cairns. From 181/7
India went on to make 298 thanks to a fluent 64 by Venkat who hit 4
boundaries and a six off Petherick. I remember seeing Venkat
going down on his knees and hoisting over midwicket a sixer !!
Sixers were
rarer those days … and someone getting out trying to hit a six was unpardonable
– Kapil was once dropped for that reason though the was the highest scorer in
first innings. Under
Law 19 – Boundaries, if a batter hits the ball & the ball crosses the
boundary without first touching the ground inside the field of play, then six runs are awarded.
Though I could miss some –
from the days I started following Cricket, the first famed Six hitter was Kapil
Dev; then Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Sandeep Patil, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Virender
Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Sharma, [in between there
were some like Robin Singh !] - though
he did not play Test, Atul Bedade was touted as a big six hitter, much like the
modern Shivam Dube.
Today there was some talk
about the manner - Niroshan Dickwella lost his wicket to Prasidh Krishna
moments after Yashasvi Jaiswal tried to goad him into a hook shot, strolling in
from square leg to have some words with the batter. Midway
through that over, Jaiswal walked over to Dickwella to suggest he had played
with unusual restraint for his 80 in the first innings, which took two hours
and 40 minutes. Jaiswal pointed to the
Galle Municipality Stand and told him: "Hit him there, I need to see
something." "No, I'm not Jaiswal," Dickwella responded,
suggesting the hook was not a shot he usually played. But then Dickwella kept
the conversation going by quipping that he would do it "if you take me to
IPL". To this Jaiswal said, "I will 100% take you."
People have criticized
him sometimes for the manner of his shot selection – stupid, stupid, stupid
cried Sunil Gavaskar once. But it is the
way he plays. Rishabh Pant is different –
he turns mundane to exciting feverish pitch – getting down, hoisting the ball,
sometimes with a single handed shot !! At Galle to, Pant found unique ways to score
runs, dancing down and flat-batting short balls down the ground but also
sensationally pulling balls behind square by getting inside the line. One of those pulls brought up his fifty and his 100th career
six. Only two have hit more.
Rishabh Pant
became the first Indian batter to hit 100 sixes in Test cricket when he pulled
Sri Lanka's Lahiru Kumara over fine-leg during the Galle Test. He is only the
fourth to hit 100 sixes in Tests and is currently tied at third alongside Adam
Gilchrist, who was the first to reach the milestone. Ahead of Pant are Ben
Stokes (138) and Brendon McCullum (107). Among the four batters to hit 100
sixes, Pant is by far the fastest to the milestone in terms of number of
matches, innings and balls faced. He took 31 Tests fewer than Stokes, and 41
innings and 1660 balls fewer than Gilchrist. Pant is also the quickest in terms
of days from debut, although only 14 days fewer than Gilchrist.
Pant's Test career
started with a six, having got off the mark in the format with one off the
second ball he faced and now he has scored 100 in just 51 tests.
Dissecting his Career,
since 2025, he is on a six hitting spree having hit 32 in just 16 innings .. ..
and he dominates, decimates, destroys spinners on his day – of his 100, 76 are
off them. By another parameter of best
balls per six ratio, there are two ahead of him. Tim Southee who played 156 innings striking
98 and Shahid Afridi who hit 52 off 48 innings !! – Chris Cairns and Adam
Gilchrist are behind him.
Some statistics may not reveal the correct status as players are of different ages yet here are some great players Six/no. of Tests (Pant 100/51): Tim Southee 98/107; Chris Gayle 98/103; Jacques Kallis 97/166; Virender Sehwag 97/104; Angelo Mathews 90/119; Rohit Sharma 88/67; Brian Lara 88/131; Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards 84/121; Flintoff 82/79; Ravindra Jadeja 82/90; MS Dhoni 79/90; Ricky Ponting 73/168; Clive Lloyd 70/110; David Warner 69/112; Sachin Tendulkar 69/200; Ian Botham 67/102; Gordon Greenidge 67/108; AB de Villiers 64/114; Kapil Dev 61/131
One needs to remember that in Dec 2022, Pant had a nasty car accident near Roorkee with injuries all over the body – right knee ligament damage, effectively ruling him out of 2023 season, missing IPL - rehabilitation of 14 months involving surgery, physiotherapy, strengthening – he bounced back with strong mind able to squat and move laterally as a wicket keeper. He returned to IPL 2024 and was part of the victorious 2024 T20 WC.
Time and again he has proved his mettle in Test and at Gabba in Jan 2021, India needed 328 fourth innings runs, a very tough target with Aussies not having lost at Gabba since 1988. Pant was carrying an injured elbow but changed the chase with his cavalier approach. He plundered at will making an unbeaten 89 attacking all the bowlers as India eventually winning with his hit. .. .. and at Sydney his 97 was invaluable as it helped saving the test.
No doubts,
records are meant to be broken the young Yashasvi Bhupendra Kumar Jaiswal has
the potential, still will have to hit more as he now has 45 sixers in 30 tests.
Interesting
! ~ well played Rishabh Pant, we love the way you play !!
19.8.2026
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