Rishabh Pant Could Join Don Bradman, Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara In Elite List With Another Ton
Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant could join a list of legends like Don Bradman, Rahul Dravid and Brian Lara with another century at Edgbaston during the second Test against England. Pant continued his red-hot Test form, slamming entertaining, counter-attacking and stroke-filled 134 and 118 during the first Leeds Test, which went in vain as India failed to defend the target of 371 runs and lost by five wickets. The swashbuckling left-hander has a solid record in England, with 808 runs in 10 Tests and 19 innings at an average of 42.52, with four centuries and two fifties. His best score is 146.
The last time he was at Edgbaston back in July 2022, he smashed a counter-attacking 146 in 111 balls, with 19 fours and four sixes, and his partnership with Ravindra Jadeja powered India to 416 from a troublesome situation of 98/5. India lost the match as England successfully chased down the 378 set by them.
Now, if Pant scores another century at Edgbaston, he will join Bradman, Australia's Warren Bardsley, Dravid, Lara, Australia's Charles George Macartney and New Zealand's Daryl Mitchell as the seventh visiting batter to score centuries in three successive Tests in England.
He will be only the second Indian after Dravid to repeat the feat after 23 years, slamming 115 at Nottingham, following it with 148 at Leeds and 217 at The Oval.
The latest visiting batter who pulled off this feat was Kiwi all-rounder Mitchell, who smashed 108 at Lord's, 190 at Nottingham and 109 at Leeds.
After surpassing MS Dhoni both for most centuries by an Indian wicketkeeper-batter and runs by an Asian wicketkeeper-batter in South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia (SENA) conditions and becoming the first Indian wicketkeeper-batter with twin tons in a Test at Leeds, will Pant continue his historic run in the series so far?
The second Test will take place from July 2 onwards.
India's Test squad for England series: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.
England Men's Test squad for 2nd Test: Ben Stokes (capt), Jofra Archer, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India.com
20 minutes ago
- India.com
Neeraj Chopra Dethrones Anderson Peters, Back To World No. 1 Spot In Javelin Throw Rankings
Indian world champion and Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra reclaimed his number one spot in men's javelin throw world rankings from Anderson Peters of Grenada following a string of brilliant performances on the international stage. World Athletics updated the rankings earlier this week, increasing Neeraj's points to 1,445 compared to Peters' tally of 1,431, according to Also, Pakistan's Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem sits at number four with 1,370 points to his name. Germany's Julian Weber, who has the best throw of 2025 so far, a 91.06 effort at the Doha Diamond League, is third in the rankings, and Czechia's Jakub Vadlejch, the Tokyo 2020 silver medallist, is in fifth spot, completing a very impressive-looking top five. Neeraj lost his top spot to Peters back in September 2024, just shortly after the Paris Olympics, where he attained a silver medal with a throw of 89.45, and Peters took home the bronze. The year 2025 has been incredible for Neeraj, as he kicked off with a win at the Potch Invitational in Potchefstroom, South Africa, in April and followed it up with a very special second-place finish at Doha Diamond League, where he crossed the 90-metre mark for the first time with a throw of 90.23 m. He also went on to secure a second spot in the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial in Poland later that month and resumed his winning ways with back-to-back titles at Paris Diamond League and Ostrava Golden Spike this month, with best efforts of 88.16 m and 85.29 m. Neeraj has outdone Peters in all four battles this year, extending his streak over his Grenada rival. The last time he finished behind him was during the 2022 World Athletics Championships, when Neeraj had to settle for a silver with a throw of 88.39, as Peters threw a solid 89.91 m. Overall, the Tokyo 2020 Gold medalist leads Peters by 16-5 in major javelin throw competition finals. Both are expected for another face-off at the Neeraj Chopra Classic event at Bengaluru on July 5.
Indian Express
33 minutes ago
- Indian Express
RB Ramesh explains what led to R Praggnanandhaa's barnstorming 2025: Playing ‘risky' chess, more variety of openings and second coming out of shadows
There will be a new India No. 1 in town when the official chess ratings list comes out in a few days after R Praggnanandhaa snatched victory at the uber-competitive 2nd UzChess Cup in Tashkent. The win came after some drama where the Indian found himself in a Mexican standoff with two Uzbek players from the country's golden generation. Pragg won the title against an elite 10-player Masters field in Tashkent that comprised heavy-hitters like Ian Nepomniachtchi, Arjun Erigaisi, Richard Rapport, Parham Maghsoodloo, and Aravindh Chithambaram besides the Uzbek quartet of Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Javokhir Sindarov, Nodirbek Yakubboev and Shamsiddin Vokhidov. After nine rounds of classical chess, there were three players locked at the top with 5.5 points each: Pragg, Abdusattorov and Sindarov. Pragg had started the event brightly, but had a mid-event stumble with back-to-back defeats against Maghsoodloo and Rapport (which is a candidate for one of the games of the year). Pragg started Friday needing a victory with black pieces. He did exactly that: delivering a 49-move takedown of Abdusattorov in the classical format to ensure a three-way battle for the title via the faster tiebreaks. In the tiebreaks, each of the three players needed to play six games (three against each opponent) with three minutes on the clock. It was after that mayhem that Praggnanandhaa emerged as the winner. Wrapped up the #UzChessCup Masters with a win in the final round and wins in tie breaks. Tiebreaks were crazy indeed. Grateful for all the support that I have received so far. Onto my next challenge to Croatia. — Praggnanandhaa (@rpraggnachess) June 27, 2025 'Tiebreaks were crazy indeed,' posted Pragg on his X, before adding: 'Onto my next challenge in Croatia.' The UzChess Cup also helped Pragg leap ahead of his compatriots like Arjun, Gukesh and Aravindh in one of the most heavily-contested battles in the sport at the moment: the race to be India's top-ranked player, a position which comes with other perks, like invitations to elite tournaments like Norway Chess. By beating Abdusattorov, Praggnanandhaa now has a live rating of 2778.3, which also propels him to World No. 4. He leaves behind Gukesh (live rating of 2776.6) and Arjun (2775.7). The UzChess Cup marks Praggnanandhaa's third title of the year. He won the extremely-competitive Tata Steel event in Wijk aan Zee (where he overpowered newly-crowned world champion Gukesh in a tense tiebreak) and the Grand Chess Tour's Superbet Chess Classic Romania (where he won a playoff against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja). The year has also seen Pragg finish 2nd at the Stepan Avagyan Memorial tournament behind Aravindh. 'Of all his wins this year, this one seemed the least likely with just two rounds to go. However, he defeated Arjun Erigaisi (yesterday) and today in the crucial match defeated Nodirbek Abdussattorov to tie for first place,' wrote five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand on X. 'In an impressive demonstration of character he won his third tiebreak of the year as well. He is deservedly the new number four in the chess world and the highest rated player in India.' 2025 has seen a different Praggnanandhaa after a quiet 2024 by his standards. The 19-year-old has been coaxed to play a brand of 'risky, more attacking and adventurous chess' by his longtime guru, RB Ramesh. Ramesh pointed at Friday's game against Abdusattorov and said that the approach from Pragg throughout the game was testament to this new mindset while playing chess, which he has adopted this year. 'Pragg is quite good in attack, but he was playing too solid in 2024. At least that was my impression. We discussed this and talked about being more adventurous, which you can see now,' Ramesh told The Indian Express. 'His chess was always quite good. Now he's also been adding new openings and trying a lot more variety of openings in games.' What has also worked for him is his second, Vaibhav Suri, who also aided the Indian team at the Chess Olympiad, emerging from behind the curtain and travelling full-time with Pragg to tournaments, starting from the event in Wijk aan Zee earlier this year. 'Vaibhav has been helping us longer than this year. But we did not want to go public earlier (and reveal his association with Pragg). He has been with us for some time, but only recently he has started accompanying Pragg for tournaments and that has been very helpful,' Ramesh said. 'It's good to have someone you know well, who believes in you, travel with you during important tournaments. When you are going through difficult times, it will be easier to believe in ourselves.' Congratulations @rpraggnachess for winning the UZchess cup 2025 after a tremendous comeback towards the end showing strong character. Amazing job by @vaibhavschess instrumental in Pragg winning many titles this year! And the other unknown gentleman who has been contributing from… — Ramesh RB (@Rameshchess) June 27, 2025 On X, while congratulating Pragg, Ramesh also indicated there was another second operating from the shadows in Pragg's team. 'Amazing job by Vaibhav, (who has been) instrumental in Pragg winning many titles this year! And the other unknown gentleman who has been contributing from behind the scenes,' Ramesh wrote on X. Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. ... Read More
News18
37 minutes ago
- News18
R Praggnanandhaa Claims UzChess Cup Masters 2025 Title, Climbs To Career-Best Ranking
Last Updated: Praggnanandhaa edged out Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Javokhir Sindarov to the top spot in a tie-breaker at Tashkent and moved up to No.4 in the rankings with the triumph. R Praggnanandhaa. (X) Indian GM R Praggnanandhaa won the UZChess Cup Masters 2025 event in Tashkent on Friday as the teenager edged out Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Javokhir Sindarov to the top spot in dramatic fashion. The 19-year-old Indian also climbed to No.4 in the World Rankings following his triumph in Uzbekistan as he leapfrogged compatriots D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi. The win also proved to be the Indian's third crown of the year, following triumphs at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament and the Grand Chess Tour Superbet Classic in Romania. 'Wrapped up the #UzChessCup Masters with a win in the final round and wins in tie breaks," Praggnanandhaa posted on social media platform X, foremrly Twitter, following the nerve-wrecking victory. 'Tiebreaks were crazy indeed. Grateful for all the support that I have received so far," he added. 'Onto my next challenge to Croatia," the Indian GM's update read. Praggnanandhaa began the final day trailing local favourite Nodirbek Abdusattorov by one point and Javokhir Sindarov by half a point. A crucial victory over Abdusattorov in the final round allowed him to tie with both players at 5.5 points at the conclusion of the round-robin stage. Erigaisi missed the chance to create a four-way tie after drawing with Aravindh Chithambaram. In the first round of tiebreaks, a double round-robin blitz, all three players ended with two points each. Abdusattorov and Sindarov drew both their games, while Praggnanandhaa won both with white but lost with black. In the second tiebreak, Praggnanandhaa drew with Abdusattorov with white and defeated Sindarov with black. Sindarov's win over Abdusattorov secured the title for the Indian. First Published:
