Pant breaks India record in Adelaide

Rishabh Pant has celebrated his first Test on Australian soil by breaking the record for most dismissals by an Indian wicketkeeper in a Test.

Pant took six catches in Australia’s first innings in Adelaide, the most by any gloveman in one innings at the venue and the equal-most by an Indian keeper worldwide, joining former skipper MS Dhoni.

He then backed up that effort by claiming another five catches in the second innings, to claim the record by any Indian wicketkeeper in Test cricket.

Pant also joined England’s Jack Russell and South Africa’s AB de Villiers in sharing the all-time record of 11 catches in a Test, while he overtook England’s Bob Taylor, Australia’s Adam Gilchrist and India’s Wriddhiman Saha in taking 10 in a match.

He did have the chance to break the overall record with Australia eight down midway through the second session on the final day, but he grassed a difficult Nathan Lyon chance off the bowling of Jasprit Bumrah.

Pant largely has India’s three-man pace attack to thank for his record; five of his first-innings catches were fairly regulation grabs from the bowling of the quicks and he picked up another four such dismissals from the seamers in the second innings.

He also snaffled an excellent catch off the glove of Usman Khawaja in the first innings while keeping up to the stumps to spinner Ravi Ashwin.

In the second innings, he moved well from behind the stumps to accept a catch that controversially ended Aaron Finch’s innings, while a top-edged pull shot from Tim Paine on Monday was Pant’s 10th catch, the most ever by a keeper in a Test in Australia and the equal-most by an Indian keeper anywhere.

He then snaffled his 11th catch when Mitchell Starc was caught behind off the bowling of Mohammed Shami.

Saha took 10 catches in a Test against South Africa in Cape Town earlier this year, his 10 dismissals breaking the previous Indian record of nine dismissals (eight catches and one stumping) set by Dhoni at the MCG four years ago, which proved to be the final Test of the legendary gloveman’s career.

Playing just his sixth Test, the 21-year-old Pant has made several entertaining cameos in the first Test of the series; his breezy 16-ball innings of 28 with the bat on Sunday featured four fours and a six, including three fours and a maximum in consecutive balls off the bowling of Nathan Lyon.

In August, the damaging left-hander became the first Indian and just the 12th man ever to bring up his first Test runs with a six, clobbering a maximum to get off the mark in his debut against England.

Domain Test Series v India

Dec 6-10: First Test, Adelaide Oval

Dec 14-18: Second Test, Perth Stadium

Dec 26-30: Third Test, MCG

Jan 3-7: Fourth Test, SCG

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c, wk), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Mitch Marsh (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Chris Tremain

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar