Rishabh Pant opens up after iconic Test comeback on his favourite ground: ‘…where I truly feel at home’

Rishabh Pant marked his return to red-ball cricket in spectacular fashion with a magnificent century against Bangladesh in the first Test at Chepauk. The talented left-handed batsman had been out of action for over 600 days following a serious car accident. While he had already made a successful comeback in white-ball cricket, fans were eagerly awaiting his return to Test cricket, a format where he had previously excelled. Pant showed no signs of rustiness as he dominated India's second innings with a stellar performance, reaffirming his prowess in the longest format of the game.

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.

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.