For the beleaguered Rishabh Pant, getting a century in the last IPL league match was better late than never. 

Though it didn’t serve much purpose for the already-eliminated Lucknow Super Giants, for him personally, it was gold. Pant had been struggling with the bat right through the tournament, with just one half-century in 13 games. But his innings par excellence against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Tuesday has come at the right time, ensuring he will travel to England for the five-match Test series “in a better frame of mind.”

Multiple roles

Named vice-captain and slated to play all the matches as wicketkeeper-batsman, he needed to get a big innings under his belt considering his roles as stumper, batter and vice-captain is going to be crucial for the team as they are short on experience after the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. 
“[I] just want to switch off for a few days, not think about cricket, then the England series is coming up and just preparing for that in a good frame of mind,” the LSG captain said during the post-match presentation at the Ekana Stadium after scoring his second IPL century after seven years. His first was an unbeaten 128 for Delhi Capitals against SRH in Delhi in 2018.