IND vs ENG: I Take My Hat Off To The Way That Rishabh Pant Played – Paul Collingwood Hails Pant For His Century In 5th Test

Former England captain Paul Collingwood heaped praise on young India wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant for his brilliant performance on Day 1 of the 5th Test against the England National Cricket Team at the Edgbaston, Birmingham.

India vice-captain Pant came out to bat when India were struggling after losing wickets at regular intervals and he batted with his natural swashbuckling style and smashed an 89-ball century. Pant was dismissed by Joe Root in the 67th over and he scored 146 runs off 111 balls, including 19 fours and 4 sixes.

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Meanwhile, Collingwood said that Pant deserves all the praise for his entertaining innings as it is important for the survival of Test cricket.

“[McCullum] said right from the start about the bigger picture of Test cricket and that for it to survive, we’ve got to make it much more entertaining, and today’s cricket was entertaining. There were wickets, there were runs, there were great catches. When you’re watching someone as entertaining as Pant, you’ve got to applaud an innings like that,” Collingwood was quoted as saying by the media after the first day’s play.

“I take my hat off to the way that Pant played. When you play against world-class players, they can do world-class things. And today he had his day,” he further added.

Don’t feel as if our backs were against the wall for too long – Paul Collingwood

The 46-year-old said that if England manage to restrict India to under 370 it would be a great result for the Ben Stokes-led side. He added that the England batters should be excited to bat on the Edgbaston surface.

“I don’t feel as if our backs were against the wall for too long. I think the batsmen should be excited about batting on that wicket. It will be a great result if we keep them down to 360, 370,” he said.

Former England captain further said that the approach adopted by Pant on Day 1 of the 5th Test was similar to England’s ‘Bazball’, a term given for Brendon McCullum’s style of aggressive cricket.

“Pant came out to play a bit of Bazball, as everyone keeps calling it. When you have a bit of moisture in the pitch early on, you have a chance to take early wickets, which is what we did. We’re going against the grain of much of the cricket that’s been played over the last 100 years We are trying to play as positive as possible and play entertaining cricket. Ben [Stokes] is not going to take a backwards step,” Paul Collingwood said.

Also Read: ENG vs IND: Rishabh Pant Breaks MS Dhoni’s Record After Scoring 89-Ball Century vs England In Edgbaston Test

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