India head coach Gautam Gambhir was visibly upset in the post-match press conference after the first Test against England in Headingley, Leeds, and shot back at a reporter who asked about Rishabh Pant's heroics with the bat. Pant scored a century in each innings in the first Test, but failed to get his side over the line as India lost the Test on the final day. Along with Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, and Shubman Gill also scored centuries, but it wasn't good enough for the visitors.

"There are three more centuries as well. Those are our positives. I would have liked it if you said a hundred from Jaiswal. Hundred from Shubman on debut as captain. Hundred from KL and two hundreds from Rishabh Pant. Five centuries in a Test match. The question could have been better. But again, those are great positives. We had a five-for from Jasprit Bumrah as well, but ultimately, everything boils down to getting the result. We want big runs from our top 6-7, which we got in this match. We got a five-for. We go out there to win a Test match. Unfortunately, that was not the case," Gambhir responded.

England captain Ben Stokes, however, reserved huge praise for the Indian wicket-keeper batter ahead of the second Test match at Edgbaston and admitted that he loves watching him play, adding that that kind of talent, when set free, can make things happen, referring to his century in both innings in Leeds.

“I absolutely love watching Rishabh Pant play cricket. I love the way he takes it on, in all formats of the game. He has got a bit of stick in his time, but that type of talent, when you let that type of talent be free, that is what can happen, you know, like last week,” he said.

“Two hundreds in the game — credit to him. We know we are going to get our chances with the way Rishabh plays. On a different day, it could have looked a little bit different if one of those shots had gone straight into a hand,” he said. “But yeah, very dangerous player. We know what he brings to the Indian team. I really enjoy watching him,” Stokes further added while talking about Pant.

An X user (formerly Twitter) found humour in the situation and took a light-hearted dig at India’s head coach on social media. Bringing humour into the mix, the user wrote, "According to reports, Gautam Gambhir was furious during the practice session after hearing Ben Stokes praise Rishabh Pant in a press conference. Immediately, he called Stokes to praise Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and KL Rahul, as they also scored centuries," taking a playful swipe at the India head coach that quickly caught everyone's attention.

It was all in good fun and is not meant to be taken seriously. At Edgbaston, England won the toss and elected to bowl first on a good wicket that saw very little help for the bowlers in the first session. India had made three changes to the playing XI with Akash Deep taking Jasprit Bumrah's place, Shardul Thakur making way for Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Sai Sudharsan left out in favour of Washington Sundar. England named an unchanged side.