Former India team boss Ravi Shastri was full of praise for Rishabh Pant after the fearless wicketkeeper-batter ignited the first Test against England at Leeds with a breathtaking display of unadulterated cricket. For Shastri, Pant “plays the numbers game on his own terms” and runs on a “his own computer” that only he knows a metaphor for the gut-driven brilliance that characterizes his batting.

Pant, aged 27, let loose a mesmerizing 134 off 178 balls, hitting 12 boundaries and 6 towering sixes, leaving the Headingley spectators agog on Day 2. From a breathtaking falling paddle shot to a post-century somersault, the knock was a heady combination of brilliance and unpredictability, typical Pant.

This marked his seventh Test century, and his second ton since the life-threatening car accident in late 2022 that nearly ended his career.

“Outrageous. He (Pant) plays the numbers game beautifully, plays the way he wants. He will block for a bit and then shift gears,” Shastri said on Sky Sports.

“He has his own computer and only he knows how it works. That’s his USP. That’s what puts bowlers under pressure and makes him box office, a real entertainer and a match winner,” said the former India all-rounder about Pant’s ‘method to madness’.

“That’s why there was that celebration. Thanking the man upstairs for giving him the opportunity,” said Shastri.

“I think his recovery from that accident had a lot to do with the frame of his body and being mid-20s. When I saw him in hospital, it wasn’t a pretty sight. Knee in a mess, scars all over the place, bruises all over the place.”