Pant struck a fluent 109 off 128 balls, lacing his innings with 13 fours and four sixes. The keeper-batter added 167 runs for the fourth wicket with Shubman Gill (119 off 176 balls) and helped lift India from 67/3 to 287/4 declared in their second essay.

Pant was elated to make an impact on his first Test after injury and expressed his love for playing in Chennai.

“Definition a lot special, firstly I love playing in Chennai and secondly after injury I was looking to play all three formats, this was my first match in this format and hopefully I did better,” he said after the match.

The wicketkeeper batter admitted that it was an emotional game for him as he feels he belongs to Test cricket the most.

“Definitely it was emotional, I was looking to score runs in each and every game. Coming back to Test cricket where I belong the most, being on the field gives me pleasure more than anything else,” he added.

‘Don’t know what people say outside’: Rishabh Pant on his batting approach

Pant proved that there is a method to his madness when it comes to batting in red-ball cricket as he gave decent respect to the good balls during the tricky phase of the game but went all guns blazing when he assessed the conditions completely.

The 26-year-old further talked about his batting approach and stitching an all-important partnership with Shubman Gill.

“I don’t know what people say outside, I tried to read the situation in my own way, when you are 30-3 you need to stitch a partnership and that’s what I did with Gill. To do it with a guy who I have a great relationship with is special,” he concluded.