India great Sunil Gavaskar gave us one of the moments of the summer when he labelled Test wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant "stupid, stupid, stupid".
The rant that ensued on ABC Sport after Rishabh's falling, scooping dismissal at the MCG was as entertaining as it was eviscerating, so much so that it got turned into a commercial for an Indian travel website.
But, on day two of India's first Test against England at Headingley, Rishabh and Gavaskar flipped the script, with the latter dubbing the former's seventh Test century "superb, superb, superb".
[scorecard]That was despite Rishabh reaching the 90s for the 14th time in his career with another falling-over ramp shot over fine leg to the boundary followed by a pulled six.
Another India legend, Sachin Tendulkar, admired Pant's unconventional style, writing on social media that it was actually "extremely clever" (although perhaps not if there are two fielders in place ready to snaffle a catch, as there were that day in Melbourne).
Seven times previously he had fallen in the 90s, making him one of the worst batters on percentage to convert 90s into hundreds in history.
But he got it right this time.
Rishabh inched to 99 but slogged a six over cow corner to reach three figures with a maximum for the third time — only Rohit Sharma (3) and Sachin Tendulkar (6) have raised centuries for India with a six as many times.
And, in what is becoming something of a trademark, Rishabh celebrated with a front handspring before embracing new captain and fellow century-maker Shubman Gill.
It was an innings where he drew guffaws from bowler Ben Stokes after he clattered his second ball back over his head for four, but started otherwise relatively restrained as he reached 65 on stumps on day one.
He then opened his shoulders on day two to give us the full Rishabh experience, going particularly wild after Gill was dismissed for 147 to end their 209-run fourth-wicket stand.
After crushing his sixth six of the innings, Rishabh tried to go again but could only fling his bat towards the leg side, fortunate that a somewhat distracted Jamie Smith botched the clear stumping chance.
Two overs later, he lost his right shoe while setting off for a run. A few balls after that, with wickets starting to tumble, he shouldered arms to Josh Tongue only to be given out LBW, before reviewing a ball that would have smashed the top of middle stump.
Out for 134, his was the third wicket in an Indian collapse of 7-41 that left the tourists all out for 471 and reduced their dominance after they had punished Ben Stokes's decision to send them in to bat.
India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak defended Rishabh's approach.
"Rishabh Pant makes his own plans. He decides and he bats," Kotak said.
"This innings was different. Because he plays aggressive doesn't mean he can't play defence."
England responded well to India's big first innings and the opening-over loss of Zak Crawley (4), with Ollie Pope unbeaten on 100 to end the day as he and Ben Duckett (62) led the team to 3-209 at stumps.
Pope will resume alongside Harry Brook, who is yet to score after coming in following the wicket of Joe Root (28) just before stumps.
ABC/AP
