Rishabh Pant's Gabba innings ended Australia's unbeaten run there since 1988
India arrived at Brisbane's Gabba short of first-choice players, facing a ground where Australia had not lost since 1988. On the final day of January 2021's decisive Test, wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant struck an unbeaten 89 as India chased down 328. Weeks earlier, crowds had mocked him with chants of Dhoni.
Pant was born in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, on 4 October 1997. From age 12 he travelled with his mother to Delhi at weekends to train under Tarak Sinha, and the pair stayed at a gurdwara because they had no suitable lodging. His coach made him rebuild his batting technique, and he calls a 150 for Delhi's under-19s against Assam the most important innings of his career.
Records arrived quickly. At the 2016 Under-19 World Cup he hit a fifty in 18 balls against Nepal, the fastest at that level, and that November he struck a 48-ball Ranji Trophy century, the competition's fastest. A 308 against Maharashtra made him the third-youngest Indian with a first-class triple hundred, and in 2018 his unbeaten 128 against Sunrisers Hyderabad was then the highest IPL score by an Indian.
The road was bumpy. After a weak 2020 IPL season he lost his limited-overs place, and critics compared him unfavourably with MS Dhoni. His counter-attacking 97 at Sydney, sharing a 148-run stand with Cheteshwar Pujara, preceded the Brisbane triumph. In March 2022 he reached a Test fifty in 28 balls, beating Kapil Dev's Indian record.
Following a serious car crash in late 2022, he returned for the 2024 T20 World Cup, which India won. At Headingley in June 2025 he became the first Indian to score centuries in both innings of a Test in England. Lucknow Super Giants paid ₹27.00 crore for him at the 2025 auction, the most expensive signing in IPL history, and he has hit the most Test sixes of any Indian.
Source: Rishabh Pant
