‘One of the biggest moments of my life’

A freewheeling Rishabh Pant has stormed Australia's Gabba fortress in record-breaking fashion, helping India snatch a three-wicket win to cap one of the greatest Test series of the modern era.

India wicket-keeper batsman Pant played a crucial innings as he scored an unbeaten 89 and played the role of an anchor as the wickets at the other end continued to fall, and coach Ravi Shastri praised the youngster and said that Team India play him overseas because he is a match-winner.

"What do I say about Rishabh Pant. We play him overseas because he is a match winner. He has once again shown in this series what kind of a player he is. Sometimes when he does not keep behind the wickets very well then people get after him.

"But when he plays like this and wins the match for us, if in Sydney there was one more hour to play for, then we could have won that game as well. I think he has played extremely well in this series," Shastri told Sony Network.

The 23-year-old produced two fearless fourth-innings knocks that were crucial to India's 2-1 series victory in Australia. Pant's blistering 97 helped the tourists draw the third Test in Sydney and his whirlwind 89 not out fashioned their three-wicket victory at the Gabba.

"It's been a dream series," the Delhi player, who did a victory lap of the stadium carrying an Indian flag, said after collecting the man-of-the-match award. "After not playing the first test, I practised hard and everything paid off as we won the series."

"The team management always backs me and tells me 'you are a match winner and you always have to go and win the match for the team'. That's the only thing I keep on thinking every day - that I want to win matches for India, and I'm happy that I did it today.  This is one of the biggest moments of my life now."