On Saturday, November 23, India’s star wicketkeeper, Rishabh Pant, finished a catch started by Mitchell Starc on the second delivery of Harshit Rana’s 16th over of the match as Australia came to close their first innings at the score of 104. This performance of Pant helped him to join a select band of wicketkeepers after taking the catch of Starc who was the highest score for the Home team in the first innings of the ongoing fixture at the Optus Stadium in Perth. The 27-year-old from India became the third wicket-keeper to achieve 100 dismissals in the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC).
In 30 WTC for India, Pant has so far recorded a total of 83 catches and 17 stumpings. The record for maximum dismissals in World Test Championship is held by Australian wicket keeper Alex Carey. In 33 matches of WTC for the Baggy Greens, he has made 125 catches and is credited with 12 stumpings. Above him is the West Indies wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva (103 catches, 5 stumpings).
Most dismissals in WTC
Alex Carey (Australia) – 137 (125 catches, 12 stumpings)
Joshua Da Silva (West Indies) – 108 (103 catches, 5 stumpings)
Rishabh Pant (India) – 100 (87 catches, 13 stumpings)
Tom Blundell (New Zealand) – 90 (78 catches, 12 stumpings)
Mohammad Rizwan (Pakistan) – 87 (80 catches, 7 stumpings)
Debuting in Test matches for India in 2018, Pant has a record – of most number of stumpings in WTC, and in the current series against Australia, he will seek to achieve 100 catches as well.
In every Test match that India plays, there has been Rishabh Pant. To begin with, on the first day of the match played in Perth, the left-hander had joined Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in only his second Test match. It’s not everyday that a batter scores 2000 runs in WTC and for Pant, he became the third Indian batter to achieve this feat. Pant was just three runs away from breaching the coveted 2000-run figure and after making 37 runs off 78 balls, the lad sits pretty at 2034 runs in 30 matches.
Owing to Pant’s 37 runs, which included three fours and a six, the team of India was able to put together a meager score of 150 runs in the first innings. After almost a year and a half, Pant returned to play a Test match in September 2024 and added 48 runs for the seventh wicket with Nitish Kumar Reddy who had top scored for India in the first innings of his debut Test match. Reddy who turned 21 earlier in the year scored 41 runs from 59 balls and was the last Indian batter to be dismissed in Day 1 of the first Test match.
