Rishabh Pant scripts HISTORY, becomes first player in Test cricket to achieve this feat

The 27-year-old played a sensational innings of 61 runs from just 33 deliveries against Australia in Sydney to break numerous records

India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant played a brilliant knock of 61 runs from 33 deliveries on the second day of the fifth Border-Gavaskar series Test to script history in the longest format of the game. Pant slammed the second-fastest Test fifty by an Indian batter to keep the visitors’ innings afloat.

The 27-year completed his half-century in just 29 deliveries, just behind his own record of a 28-ball half-century against Sri Lanka in Bengaluru in 2022. Pant was eventually dismissed by Australia skipper Pat Cummins to restrict India to 124/5.

Pant headed back to the dugout after playing a highly entertaining knock comprising of 6 boundaries and 4 massive sixes.

Fastest half-centuries for India in Test cricket

28 balls – Rishabh Pant vs Sri Lanka, Bengaluru, 2022

29 balls – Rishabh Pant vs Australia, Sydney, 2025

30 balls – Kapil Dev vs Pakistan, Karachi, 1982

31 balls – Shardul Thakur vs England, The Oval, 2021

31 balls – Yashasvi Jaiswal vs Bangladesh, Kanpur, 2024

The explosive half-century also saw Pant became the only player in history to score 2 fifties in under 30 deliveries in red-ball cricket. This was his first fifty of the series and the second-fastest by anyone on Australian soil.

Following the end of second day’s play, India pacer Prasidh Krishna highly praised Pant’s fearless innings.

“All of us were sitting together, the bowlers were sitting together and watching him bat and we definitely said if I was sitting at home and watching this, I would have loved it. To be able to do it from the ground, I mean, nothing like it. I know it’s a lot of risk, but that’s the way the game is played today,” Krishna said.

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