Team India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant opined on his unique celebration after he smashed a hundred against England in the first Test. He shared that he had trained in gymnastics since school days, when he was asked about his somersault celebration upon reaching the hundred on Day 2 of the Leeds Test.

When he was asked about the celebration ahead of Day 3, Pant told Sony Sports (via India Today): “I had three celebrations in mind. One of them was ‘let the bat do the talking’. Then I thought, I’ll stick with mine. I’ve been doing it since childhood (the somersault). I trained in gymnastics during school. In school, I did gymnastics. I’m very used to it. Even if you wake me up in the middle of the night, I can do a somersault. After the accident, I had to work even harder at it. But I put in the work, and now it’s easy for me again.”

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However, Rishabh Pant also revealed that he told Bashir about his wish to reach his century with a maximum, should the fielders be in the circle on Day 2 of the Leeds Test as well. Despite being a run away from the three-figure mark, he
stepped out and pulled off a one-handed six over deep midwicket and reached his century.

“When Bashir was bowling the previous over, I thought I should get to the hundred then and there. I didn’t want to play percentage cricket and take a risk—he bowled well, so I respected it and took a single. In the next over, when he came back, I told him, ‘If you keep the field close-in, I’ll go for the big shot.’ Luckily, I was on 99. I was confident, but I still wanted to play the ball on merit,” Rishabh Pant concluded.