India set a target of 371 for the hosts in the first test. England 21/0 at the end of the day, and they will be looking to repeat the famous 2019 Ashes chase at Headingley. Rishabh Pant was in a blazing form when he struck a ton and got ample support from KL Rahul.
Rishabh Pant at the top
Rishabh Pant repeated his heroics from the first innings with another fantastic century in the second innings. He became the first Indian batter to smash a hundred in both innings of the tests in England. Overall, he is the 5th Indian batter to smash twin hundreds in an overseas test match.
Indian batters to score hundreds in both innings in an overseas test match:
- Vijay Hazare – at Adelaide ( 1948 )
- Sunil Gavaskar – at Port of Spain ( 1971 )
- Rahul Dravid – at Hamilton ( 1999 )
- Virat Kohli – at Adelaide ( 2014 )
- Rishabh Pant – at Leeds ( 2025 )
Rishabh is also the first Asian wicket keeper to achieve this milestone. He is the second wicketkeeper overall to score centuries in both innings of a Test match, after the Zimbabwe legend Andy Flower, who achieved this feat in 2001 at Harare against South Africa.
Claasy KL Rahul
KL Rahul also joined the list of record books along with Rishabh Pant. When Pant was taking on the bowlers at the other end, he frustrated them with his solid defence technique. He scored his 6th overseas century in tests along with Rishabh Pant.
Most overseas test centuries among Indians :
- Sachin Tendulkar – 17
- Virat Kohli – 12
- Rahul Dravid – 10
- Sunil Gavaskar – 8
- Mohammed Azharuddin – 6
- KL Rahul – 6
- Rishabh Pant – 6
- Sourav Ganguly – 5
- VVS Laxman – 5
- Cheteshwar Pujara – 5
- Ajinkya Rahane – 4
- Virender Sehwag – 4
KL Rahul and Rishabh also registered their 5th international hundred in England.
Most international hundreds among Indians in England :
- Rohit Sharma – 9
- Rahul Dravid – 8
- Sachin Tendulkar – 7
- Rishabh Pant – 5
- KL Rahul – 5
- Shikhar Dhawan – 4
- Sourav Ganguly – 4
- Dilip Vengsarkar – 4
- Virat Kohli – 3
Stokes and bazball up for the chase
India fumbled again in the second innings from 333/4 to 364/10. They have set a target of 371 for England. This is such a huge target to chase on the last day, but this England team is capable of pulling this chase.
India have lost only one test match after setting a target of more than 350 runs, and that defeat came against this same England team at Birmingham in 2022, where England chased 378 in the fourth innings. They are chasing a similar target now.
England also have great memories at Headingley where they chased 359 against Australia in 2019. Ben Stokes and Jack Leach put up a brilliant partnership for the last wicket. England will be looking to recreate those scenes and doing that im front of an in-form Jasprit Bumrah won’t be an easy task. But, he needs good support from other bowlers too. We are upto enjoy a quality game of cricket on Day 5.
Also Read: ENG vs IND: “It Is Hard For Us To Understand”- KL Rahul Reflects On Rishabh Pant’s Dynamics