Former England captain Michael Vaughan lauded Rishabh Pant for his swashbuckling batting display on Day 1 of the ongoing first Test match between India and Sri Lanka in Mohali. The wicketkeeper-batter slammed 96 runs off 97 balls to power India to 357 for six in 85 overs at stumps on Friday. Taking to Twitter, Vaughan wrote, “Absolutely love watching @RishabhPant17 !! A player who you can’t love .. don’t want to miss a ball he faces .. no idea what’s going on his head .. but it’s always a must watch .. I reckon he is the greatest modern day player entertainer ., #INDvSL”

Absolutely love watching @RishabhPant17 !! A player who you can’t love .. don’t want to miss a ball he faces .. no idea what’s going on his head .. but it’s always a must watch .. I reckon he is the greatest modern day player entertainer ., #INDvSL

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) March 4, 2022

With the dismissal of Shreyas Iyer in the 62nd over, the visitors looked set to restrict India to below 300, but Pant had other plans and went on to play a T20-like knock consisting of nine fours and four sixes.

Initially, India made a good start with Mayank Agarwal and Rohit Sharma adding 33 and 29 runs to the scoreboard, respectively. Then Hanuma Vihari registered a half-century and Virat Kohli narrowly missed out on a fifty after crossing 8000 Test runs in his 100th Test match.

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After Iyer’s dismissal, Pant set up a 100-run partnership with Jadeja to put India in a strong position in the Test match.

Meanwhile, Lasith Embuldeniya took two wickets for Sri Lanka but also conceded 107 runs. Meanwhile, Suranga Lakmal, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Dhananjaya de Silva bagged a wicket each.