"There have been people with better strike-rates" - Former captain's huge claim on Rishabh Pant during ENG vs IND 2025 1st Test

Former England skipper Nasser Hussain praised Rishabh Pant for being fearless and playing with his instinct on Day 4 of the first Test between India and England at Headingley in Leeds. Notably, Pant made history by becoming the first Indian to score twin centuries in England on Monday (June 23).

Pant walked in to bat early into the day's play, as skipper Shubman Gill (8) failed to recreate the first innings' heroics. The southpaw brought a plethora of shots to increase the team's tempo and also played sensible cricket to stretch India's lead, along with KL Rahul.

In the end, Rahul (137) and Pant (118) were the top batters for the visitors, as they set up a target of 371 for England. In the post-match analysis on Sky Sports, Hussain and Mark Butcher sat with Mel Jones to share their thoughts on the game's proceedings.

Jones asked Hussain why England captain Ben Stokes looked grim during the 195-run partnership between KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant. While lauding Pant's batting approach, Hussain said:

"He [Pant] doesn't know what he's going to do from ball to ball, you don't know what he's going to do in an over or session. He himself is not making it up, not playing by numbers, but has a gut feeling about when he's going to hit. (3:50) "There have been people with better strike rates, maybe Chris Gayle, who hit the ball farther and harder, AB de Villiers and whatever, but this lad is so freakish. You don't know whether he's going to block-block-slog or slog-slog-block or he'll come down second ball of his innings and not do anything for the next 10 overs."

He added:

"He must be a nightmare to captain against and Stokes was worried about the boundaries and he thought he'd get him caught in the deep with one of those big hits or leading edges."

Butcher also chimed in with his praise for Rishabh Pant, pointing out the latter's perseverance en route to a record-breaking knock. He said:

"At the other end, Rishabh Pant's first 20-30 balls were extraordinary. He's talking to himself about playing straight, being sensible. Then, two balls later, he's falling on the floor or flinging himself. He must have sort of hit fresh air 10 or 15 times, going for huge wahoos. (1:20) "Suddenly, he just calmed himself and played another wonderful innings. The second wicket-keeper batter to make two centuries in a test match and the first Indian to make two hundreds in a Test match against England. I mean, it was just stunning stuff."

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Nasser Hussain on significance of win for Shubman Gill in ENG vs IND 2025 1st Test

Nasser Hussain shared his views on the importance of the victory for Indian skipper Shubman Gill in the opening Test of the grueling five-match series. The 57-year-old predicted that Gill would silence all his doubters with a win on his captaincy debut, while also hitting a ton in the first innings.

"Big day for Shubman Gill for a few reasons. Obviously, starting off his career as an Indian Test match captain, if he can start off with a win and a 100 in the first innings that would be absolutely exactly box-tick all the names that they've mentioned that aren't here." (10:38)

Hussain also recalled England's famous win over Australia at Headingley in 2019. He feels the pressure will be on Gill, with England going all guns blazing for a win.

"How he handles tomorrow [will be important] as it's not going to be a day when England sits in, they're going to go hard. It would be interesting to see how Gill reacts under the pressure of an opposition and a Headingley crowd."

At the end of Day 4, England were at 21/0, with Zak Crawley (12*) and Ben Duckett (9*) at the crease.

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Edited by Vaishnavi Iyer