Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 21 : Former England cricketer Stuart Broad also hailed Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant's century at Leeds against England in the first Test, saying that "everything was going on" during his innings from "falling scoops" to "run-out chances".
Pant's scored a record-breaking and entertaining seventh Test century that had it all, be it his trademark audacity, him falling on the ground after a shot or the bat slipping out of his hands.
Speaking on the 'Match Centre Live', the JioStar expert Broad said that the England crowd is really great at appreciating good cricket and the reception that Pant got was "one of the loudest I have heard for an opposition player scoring a hundred in England".
"It was really well appreciated, because it was so entertaining. We didn't know what was coming! There were those falling scoops, full-blooded shots, run-out chances... everything was going on. Everything you want as a Test match fan patience, leaving, then, a flair shot, putting the bowlers under pressure. The crowd really appreciated everything Rishabh Pant did. Box office - truly a box office innings," he added.
Speaking on skipper Ben Stokes' four-wicket haul, that helped England restrict India to 471 when a 500-plus total looked likely, Broad said that the skipper is a "great character and never lets his brain turn negative or think he's defeated or beaten."
"He is like: 'Give me the ball. I will show you how to do it this is how I want us to go about our business.' And let us remember Stokes is a cricketer who has not played much cricket this year, and yet he comes back and hits the straps straight away. He's looked like England's best bowler by far."
"Yes, he is their most experienced bowler, but he has also looked their best, and that is a concern for England a little. Because if Stokes can get it to swing and seam, then Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah can too. So, I do not think England will find batting quite as easy as the Indian batters did yesterday," he concluded.
Coming to the match, England opted to bowl first. Centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal (101 in 159 balls, with 16 fours), skipper Shubman Gill (147 in 227 balls, with 19 fours and a six) and Pant (134 in 178 balls, with 12 fours and six sixes) took India to 471 all out.
Skipper Ben Stokes (4/66) and Josh Tongue (4/86) were the top bowlers for England.
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