The highly-anticipated India vs England Test series is set to start on Friday, June 20, at the Headingley ground in Leeds. This series will mark India's first series in the fourth World Test Championship (WTC) Cycle 2025-27. After making it to two WTC finals, India narrowly missed out in the third edition, owing to two consecutive series defeats against New Zealand (at home) and Australia (away). Following those series, three players, Ravi Ashwin, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma, have stepped away from the Tests.
In the absence of the senior batting duos, the onus will follow on KL Rahul and wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant. The Southpaw has a golden opportunity to show his class after a dismal outing in the IPL 2025 for LSG. The five-match Test series will also present the 27-year-old an opportunity to surpass MS Dhoni's massive Test record and become the most successful wicketkeeper-batter in Indian history.
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Rishabh Pant set to surpass Dhoni's Test centuries tally
While Rishabh Pant's white-ball form is always a talking point, there is no doubt whatever on his Test form. The southpaw has the best average for the top six Indian batters, averaging a shade over 43. The wicketkeeper-batter is an X-factor player in the red-ball format. The upcoming five Tests will allow the 27-year-old to go past Dhoni's record of six centuries in Tests.
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Currently, Pant has six centuries, and by scoring one more hundred, he will surpass the CSK star's long-standing record of most centuries struck by an Indian wicketkeeper-batter. Apart from this record, Pant is also eyeing to surpass Dhoni's SENA runs tally. So far, the southpaw has scored 1,681 runs in 26 Tests at an average of 37.35. He needs only 50 runs to go past the CSK star's record for the highest run-scorer by an Asian keeper-batter in SENA nations.
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