Rishabh Pant credits childhood coach Tarak Sinha for Edgbaston century: He used to tell me to focus on defence

India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant credited his childhood coach, late Tarak Sinha, for his sparkling century against England on Day 1 of the rescheduled fifth Test.

The 24-year-old Pant’s 111-ball 146 was studded with 19 boundaries and four maximums. He, along with Ravindra Jadeja (83 not out), helped India recover after an early collapse with their 222-run partnership for the sixth wicket.

“Tarak Sir used to tell me that I had the ability to hit but I had to focus on defence. Since then, I have kept working on my defence. At the same time, when you are playing Test cricket, it is important to stay on defence. You can’t hit all the balls and you can’t do defence on all the balls. I’m trying to play on the merit of the ball,” Pant said in the post-day one press conference.

When Twitter went abuzz post the @RishabhPant17 blitz #TeamIndia | #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/RCuVwRmy34

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India were reduced to 98 for the loss of five wickets in 27.5 overs on rain-hit Day 1 before the pair of Pant and Jadeja rebuilt the team’s innings. Pant’s 89-ball hundred saw him break MS Dhoni’s record of the fastest century by an Indian batter in the longest format. The left-hander also became the only visiting wicket-keeper to score more than one overseas Test century on English soil.

When asked about him coming ahead of Shreyas Iyer, the wicketkeeper-batter said: “I was always coming at number 5”.

Former England captain Joe Root got rid of Pant as the wicketkeeper-batter edged to slip in the 67th over.

India are currently on 338 for the loss of seven wickets at stumps, with Jadeja and Mohammed Shami as the overnight batters. For England, veteran fast bowler James Anderson took three wickets and Matthew Potts got two. Ben Stokes and Joe Root picked up one each after putting India to bat.