Rishabh Pant becomes 1st Indian keeper and 2nd overall ever to score twin tons in one Test as India break century record in Leeds

There is no stopping Rishabh Pant in Test cricket. The Indian keeper-batter broke multiple records on his way to completing twin centuries in a single Test, becoming the first from the country and the second overall ever to achieve this feat. Pant notched up his eighth Test hundred against England on day four of the Leeds Test – his second of this game, as India also broke the centuries tally record (5*) in a Test match game. Pant, however, also broke the record of hitting the most runs in a Test by an Indian keeper-batter, surpassing MS Dhoni’s tally of 224 runs.

Pant is back in form. The left-hander notched up a hundred in the first innings at Headingley - his third on English soil. Pant hit a brilliant 134, smashing six sixes and 12 fours – including surpassing his former team captain Rohit Sharma on the list of players with the most sixes hit in the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle. Although that hundred, aligned with two more from Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill, helped India hit 471 in the first innings, his second has already put the visitors in the driver’s seat in the series opener.

Moreover, his second hundred of this Test made him only the second wicketkeeper-batter in history, after former Zimbabwe captain Andy Flower, to score centuries in both innings of a match.

Besides, he also surpassed Budhisagar Krishnappa Kunderan’s tally of 230 runs for the keeper-batter with the most runs across both innings in a Test for India.

Team India breaks century tally record

For the first time in Indian cricket history, five batters scored hundreds in the same match, surpassing the previous best of four, when India’s top four, including Dinesh Karthik, Wasim Jaffer, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, all scored hundreds against Bangladesh during the 2007 Mirpur Test.

Meanwhile, India’s lead gas surpassed 270, with less than five sessions remaining in the game. Earlier, KL Rahul also completed his hundred in the second innings.