"Hats off to the way Pant played" - Paul Collingwood amazed by keeper-batter's breathtaking ton on Day 1 at Edgbaston

England's assistant coach, Paul Collingwood, was in awe of Rishabh Pant's breezy 146 on Day 1 of the fifth Test against Ben Stokes & Co. at Edgbaston. Collingwood observed that the keeper-batter played out of his skin and deserved applause.

Pant revived India's innings alongside Ravindra Jadeja after the tourists' middle-order was reduced to 98/5. Pant and Jadeja stitched together a blazing 222-run stand to put India back on top.

The Indian vice-captain reached his century in just 89 deliveries. He eventually got out to Joe Root after hitting 19 fours and four sixes.

Collingwood felt England weren't on the receiving end for too long, but admitted one can expect world-class things from brilliant players. The former cricketer feels that the first day lived up to Brendon McCullum's desire to make Test cricket as entertaining as possible.

Collingwood said, as quoted by BT Sport:

"Today was a great day, I don’t feel our backs were against the wall for too long, but hats off to the way Pant played. When you’re up against world-class players, they can do world-class things.

"It’s been another exciting day of Test cricket, we’ve had three exciting games against New Zealand and the first day here has been exactly the same. You do enjoy it when someone is playing out of their skin in an entertaining manner."

He added:

"Brendon has said from the very start he’s looking at the bigger picture of Test cricket and for it to survive we’ve got to make it a lot more entertaining. Today was exactly that – there was wickets and runs, great catches and when you watch someone as exciting as Pant, you’ve got to applaud."

Pant arrived at the crease at 98/5 as only one of India's top four reached 20 after losing the toss. James Anderson, who took three scalps, dismissed openers Shubman Gill and Cheteshwar Pujara, while Matthew Potts got rid of Hanuma Vihari and Virat Kohli.

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"I wouldn’t necessarily say we went wrong today" - Paul Collingwood

Paul Collingwood asserted that they are trying to play attacking cricket. (Image Credits: Getty)

The former England skipper also conceded that the hosts didn't do much wrong today, but felt the ball hardly did anything after 30-40 overs. Hence, Collingwood said the wickets were difficult to come by.

He added:

"I wouldn’t necessarily say we went wrong today, but what we’ve found is once the ball goes soft after 30-40 overs it can be very difficult to take wickets if it’s not going off straight. It was a brave ball from Joe, I’ll say that, but sometimes you need a bit of genius or bravery.

"We’re not playing conventional Test match cricket, we’re trying to be as attacking as possible and looking to take wickets with the field placings."

India are 338/7 at stumps, with Ravindra Jadeja unbeaten at 83. The tourists scored 4.63 runs per over, with left-arm spinner Jack Leach having an economy rate of 7.88 in his nine overs.