IND vs SL: Rishabh Pant on verge of achieving historic milestone as India gear up for landmark 600th Test

India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant could achieve what no Indian batter has achieved so far, when his team takes on Sri Lanka in the first Test in Galle starting on Saturday.

Rishabh Pant is three sixes away from becoming the first Indian batter to hit 100 sixes in Test cricket. The 28-year-old has so far slammed 97 sixes from 50 Tests, and is currently India's leading six-hitter in Tests.

He moved to the top of the country's list in November 2025 when he surpassed Virender Sehwag's tally of 90 sixes. Pant hit his 91st six at that time, during India's first Test against South Africa at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Virender Sehwag is second on the list of most Tests sixes by Indians, with 90 maximums to his name. Former India captain Rohit Sharma is fourth in this list with 88 sixes, whereas Ravindra Jadeja, with 82 maximum, completes the top five.

Rishabh Pant's Test numbers

Pant's 97 sixes have come during a Test career that began against England at Trent Bridge in August 2018. He has scored 3,557 Test runs, including eight centuries and 19 fifties at an average of 43.37.

The Afghanistan Test in June marked Pant's 50th appearance in the format. He scored 81 in India's only innings in Mullanpur as the hosts completed an innings victory. He struck three sixes in an over from Abdul Malik, thus contributing to his current sixes tally.

A total of 100 Test sixes would also place Pant among a small group of batters in men's Test cricket. Before him, only three players had reached the mark:

England's Ben Stokes, New Zealand's Brendon McCullum and Australia's Adam Gilchrist. Stokes leads the overall list with 138 sixes, followed by McCullum with 107 and Gilchrist with 100.

Pant will hope to achieve the feat on what will be a special Test match for India, who will play their 600th Test. India will thus become just the third team, after England and Australia, to play 600 Tests.

The Delhi batter will eye another milestone in the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka. Pant will become the first Indian wicketkeeper-batter to score 3000 runs in the World Test Championship (WTC), and needs 220 more runs to do so. He has so far aggregated 2780 runs from 71 innings across the four editions of the WTC so far.

The upcoming first Test between Sri Lanka and India in Galle will be followed by the second and final Test in Colombo from 23 August.