India, June 28 -- Who is India's most successful Test batter today?

If not for his exuberant twin centuries in India's first Test against England this week, Rishabh Pant might not have been the most obvious answer to that question. Yet, it is him.

This compact bundle of fast-twitch muscle fibre with a maverick batting style that can be deceptively technical or totally outrageous, but is always defined by a sense of freedom and joy, stands a mile apart from all other Indian batters.

Since his debut in 2018, Pant has scored 3,200 runs at an average of nearly 45 and a strike rate just above 74. That's better than the now-retired Virat Kohli, who, with 2,140 runs, comes in second (others such as KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma all ...