Rishabh Pant hands over his bottle of bubbly to former coach Ravi Shastri

Rishabh Pant had a fantastic time in the final ODI against England at Old Trafford, leading India's successful chase of the England total of 259

Pant remained unbeaten on a brilliant 125 of 113 deliveries, as India sailed to a win by five wickets and won the ODI series 2-1.

Pant came in to bat when the scoreboard reading 21 for 2, and both the openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan back in the hut. When Virat Kohli too was snared by Reece Topley with the score reading 38 it looked dicey for India, but Pant stayed put , first with Suryakumar Yadav and then with a marauding Hardik Pandya to see the visitors home.


Pant was awarded the 'Player of the Match' for his fine innings, and the cheque came together with a bottle of champagne.

What happened next was delightful. As soon as the post-match ceremony got over, Pant was seen running to Ravi Shastri - former chief coach and now commentator - and handed him the bottle of bubbly. The video was shared on social media.

It was a touching gesture in its own way. Pant got into the Indian team when Shastri was the chief coach, and the wicket-keeper batter had his solid backing all along the way. Rahul Dravid replaced Shastri as team coach after the T20I world cup in 2021.

With this innings, Pant became the first wicketkeeper-batsman from Asia to hit a ton in both the five-day format and ODIs in England. It also comes at a time when his performance against the white ball was coming under the scanner.