Fastest 2000 runs in Test: The Indian vice-captain achieved multiple personal milestones at Edgbaston on Day 1.
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During the first day of the rescheduled fifth Test match between England and India in Birmingham, India vice-captain Rishabh Pant scored his fifth Test century to emerge as the crowing point of the day’s play.
Sticking to his reputation of being a hard-hitting customer, Pant returned to the pavilion after scoring 146 (111) with the help of 19 fours and four sixes at a strike rate of 131.53.
Coming in to bat at No. 5 in the 23rd over, Pant witnessed India losing two more wickets within the next 33 balls. While the visitors lost half their side before the 100-run mark, none of it deterred Pant from playing his shots to the extent of playing an archetype swashbuckling knock.
ALSO WATCH: Rishabh Pant audaciously plays reverse sweep off James Anderson at Edgbaston
Pant, who became only the third Indian batter after Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli to score a Test century at Edgbaston, put together a 222-run game-changing sixth-wicket partnership alongside all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (83*) to power his team to 338/7 in 73 overs on a rain-affected day.
Fastest 2000 runs in Test for India
Pant, who completed 100 sixes in international cricket on Friday, also surpassed the 2,000-run mark in Test cricket. Yet to score 1,000 runs in both the white-ball formats in spite of his game being more suited for ODIs and T20Is, the same speaks highly about how well the 24-year old player has adopted to red-ball cricket without even changing his approach.
38th Indian cricketer to score 2,000 Test runs, Pant is the 15th fastest among them to achieve this milestone. Pant, who has achieved the milestone in his 52nd Test innings, follows the likes of Murali Vijay (50) and Navjot Singh Sidhu (50).
As far as the fastest Indian batters to complete 2,000 runs in Test cricket are concerned, the feat is shared by Rahul Dravid (40) and Virender Sehwag (40). In this list, Dravid and Sehwag are followed by the likes of Vijay Hazare (43), Gautam Gambhir (43), Sunil Gavaskar (44), Tendulkar (44) and Sourav Ganguly (45).
Fastest 2000 runs in Test cricket full list
| Batter | Matches | Innings | Time |
| Don Bradman (AUS) | 15 | 22 | 2y 362d |
| George Headley (WI) | 17 | 32 | 9y 164d |
| Herbert Sutcliffe (ENG) | 22 | 33 | 4y 37d |
| Michael Hussey (AUS) | 20 | 33 | 2y 60d |
| Marnus Labuschagne (AUS) | 20 | 34 | 3y 70d |
