Rishabh Pant played a magnificent innings of 134 in the first Test against England at Headingley, Leeds. This was Pant's seventh hundred and third in England. The century helped him leapfrog MS Dhoni in the list of most centuries by a wicketkeeper batter for India in Test matches.

Following the tremendous knock, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar lavished praise on Pant and rated him as the best wicketkeeper-batter in Indian cricket history, even putting him above the ranks of the legendary MS Dhoni.

“Again, I am a believer in where you got your hundreds, and I'm a big sort of, I always look at hundreds. OK, where have we got it? He's got hundreds in England. He's got 100 in South Africa. He's got a couple of hundreds in Australia,” Manjrekar said on JioHotstar.

Dhoni was an absolute champion in white-ball cricket, but he didn't score big runs in Test. Dhoni scored 2496 runs in 48 matches at an average of 32.84, with 18 fifties and a century in Pakistan. Pant, on the other hand, has already scored 1976 runs in 30 games, with six fifties and five centuries on overseas tours.

Manjrekar said that Dhoni's innings have come in easier batting conditions which is why he rated Pant ahead of Dhoni.

“So when you look at the MS' hundreds, with all due respect to his fans, his centuries would not be so much in these countries where batting is a bit more challenging, as batting on an Indian pitch. In Test cricket, he's already well ahead of MS,” he added.

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