Sunil Gavaskar, the legendary captain of the Indian cricket team, talked about his plans to do a backstand after Rishabh Pant scored a century against England in the first Test. Gavaskar encouraged Pant to recreate his summersault celebration after hitting his second century, but Pant chose a celebration made popular by footballer Dele Alli instead. During his analysis on Sony Sports, Gavaskar shared that he used to be able to do a backstand back in the day and would have loved to show it off, but he wasn’t able to now.
He admitted, “After that, I thought I’d try to do the backflip, but at my age? No way! I used to do the backstand, and I was hoping to pull it off.” He added that had he succeeded, he would have demonstrated it then and there.
Pant made history by becoming the first Indian wicketkeeper to score centuries in both innings of a Test match. Gavaskar expressed his joy for him and discussed what this achievement means for cricket fans in India. “I’m really happy. Whenever an Indian player does well, it brings joy because of how much cricket means to us. In almost every family, there’s at least one person who follows the game,” he said. “When India does well, it puts a smile on a lot of faces. Seeing this young kid bounce back after everything he’s been through, especially with that accident, is just great.”