Rishabh Pant Becomes Fastest to 100 Test Sixes, First Indian to the Landmark

Rishabh Pant reached a landmark of his own during his 66 off 69 balls in the second innings of the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. He struck two sixes in the knock, and the second of them took him to 100 sixes in Test cricket. It's a mark no batter has reached faster. Pant got there in just 89 innings, quicker than Adam Gilchrist, Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, the only other three men to hit a century of Test sixes.

Gilchrist had been the previous benchmark, needing 130 innings and 6,578 balls to get to 100. Pant did it in only 4,918 balls. He's also the first Indian batter to reach three figures in Test sixes. Virender Sehwag was the closest an Indian had come before this, finishing his career with 91 sixes from 104 Tests.

Six-hitting has become a defining part of Pant's Test batting. He has struck at least one six in 43 of his 89 Test innings, the best such ratio among batters with a minimum of 50 innings. His sixes have also contributed nearly a sixth of his total Test runs.

Pant's innings helped India post 193 in the second innings and set Sri Lanka a target of 372. Asitha Fernando took four wickets and Prabath Jayasuriya picked up a four-wicket haul as India lost their last five wickets for just 19 runs.