Pant hits 28-ball 50, breaks Kapil Dev’s record

TIL Desk Sports/ Flamboyant wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant bettered the legendary Kapil Dev’s 40-year-old record for the fastest Test fifty by an Indian on the second day of the Day/Night second Test against Sri Lanka, in Bengaluru, on Sunday.

The dashing left-hander cruised to his fifty off just 28 balls in the 42nd over of India’s second innings when he hit a Praveen Jayawickrama delivery through the extra cover boundary.

The fifty was studded with 7 fours and 2 sixes. India’s first World Cup-winning skipper Kapil Dev had hammered a 30-ball half-century against Pakistan in the Karachi Test in 1982.

“Rishabh Pant surpasses Kapil Dev to score the fastest 50 by an Indian in Test cricket… Take a bow, Rishabh,” posted the BCCI in its Twitter handle.

Pant also set a World record for notching up the fastest fifty by a wicketkeeper-batter in Tests, bettering the efforts of Australia’s Ian Smith and former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Both scored 34-ball fifties.