Sanjay Manjrekar hails Rishabh Pant’s mind, says he can bat like Cheteshwar Pujara

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar showered praise on Rishabh Pant for playing with guile on the fourth day against England. Pant scored a majestic knock of 134 runs in the first innings of the opening Test match against England at Leeds, Headingley. 

The left-hander backed his first innings century with another hundred in the second dig. The southpaw scored a brilliant knock of 118 runs off 140 balls in the second innings to help India post 364 runs.

Pant added a crucial alliance of 195 runs with opener KL Rahul, who scored a vital knock of 137 runs, to put India in front.

During his knock, Pant was seen talking to himself on the stump mic when he missed his slog ramp sweep towards fine leg. Pant urged himself to stay focus in the middle and play with a straight bat.

Sanjay Manjrekar said on JioStar, “Rishabh Pant is a great cricketing mind, so he got obsessed with the strong wind and he was trying to play everything there. He wasn’t quite convincing in the way he did it, so he decided enough of it and after that he went the other extreme where it was all block, block, blocked with a straight bat and not one shot did he play in that fashion. So this is what you get with. This is a guy who can actually bat like a Pujara for an hour or two.”

This was Pant’s eight Test century as he continues to impress in the red-ball version. The Delhi player didn’t have a great tour of Australia as he could only manage 255 runs in the Border-Gavaskar series. Furthermore, Pant could not lead Lucknow Super Giants from the front in IPL 2025 however he got off to a dream start in the Test series against England.

On the final day’s play, England need 350 more runs to win with all 10 wickets in hand.