Picture Credit: Twitter
The Indian wicket-keeper Ishan Kishan scored his maiden Test fifty at the Queen’s Park Oval on July 23, Sunday. During day 2 of the second Test match between West Indies and India, the left-hand batter brought up his milestone after hitting Kemar Roach for a one-handed Rishabh Pant style maximum over long on, while using the “RP17” bat as a tribute.
Notably, since December 30 of last year, when Rishabh Pant was involved in a horrific car accident, he has been out of action as far as the professional cricket scene is concerned. Over the past six months or so, the Roorkee-born cricketer has been recovering from serious injuries, with an eye on making his return to the sport as soon as possible.
Watch the video of Ishan Kishan hitting Rishabh Pant one-handed maximum here:
During his rehabilitation period, Pant visited the National Cricket Academy, where he had a chat with Kishan, his teammate from the U-19 days, about how the latter can get better as a player in times to come. After getting his first half-century in Tests, the Patna-born cricketer, had an interview at the end of day’s play, where he thanked his teammate for the chat they had recently.
Ishan Kishan was quoted as saying, “I was at NCA before coming here. I was practising there and Rishabh was also there for his rehab. He just got a few points for me. He asked me the bat position and everything because he had seen me playing with him. We have played together so many matches. We have been together since U-19. So he knows how I play, what my mindset is.”
“So you just help me a little bit with my bat position and everything, so otherwise I think I also wanted someone to tell me a few things about my batting and it was a great time for him to come and chat with me and really thankful for that,” added the 25-year-old.
Meanwhile, at stumps day 4 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies were 76/2, chasing the daunting target of 365 to achieve victory against India. The final day’s play at Queen’s Park Oval is expected to have some rains like day 3 and day 4, so the draw is definitely not out of the question as far as the result in this Test match goes.
