Rishabh Pant, MS Dhoni's true successor as wicketkeeper-batter for India, went past a Dhoni record in Mirpur. Dhoni was out five times in the 90s, the most by a wicketkeeper in Tests until Pant went past him on Friday.
Some might call it unfortunate, but add his five hundreds, and Pant has now made 11 scores of 90 or more in just 55 Test innings, an astonishing rate of once every five attempts.
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Pant is already India's best wicketkeeper-batter by a distance, having scored Test hundreds in England, Australia and South Africa. On form he is the best batter in the current Indian side. By extension, leaving romanticism and the virtues of pure wicketkeeping skills aside, he is already India's greatest wicketkeeper. And he isn't a shabby keeper either.
But the Pant comparisons can no longer be restricted to just India players.
Not before long, Pant will be discussed among the greatest wicketkeepers ever, and will likely surpass them, but it is not too early to try and place him in the pantheon. In terms of sheer runs, Pant is now the 30th-highest run-getter among wicketkeepers with 2262 at an average of 44.35. His longevity will be tested, but among those who have kept long enough to score 2000 runs, Pant's average is behind only AB de Villiers, Andy Flower and Adam Gilchrist.
Pant is not like a lot of other keepers, though. This is not to suggest Gilchrist would have done any less batting higher in the order, but he mostly batted at No. 7 and didn't perform a specialist batter's duties. Among keepers who have batted in the top six, Pant is already the ninth-highest run-getter, averaging 49.67 for his 1540 runs there. De Villiers, Dhoni, Flower, Gilchrist and Les Ames average higher than him in these positions, but this is elite company.
Pant hardly gets to score declaration runs. He is playing in a bowling era where you hardly get flat pitches outside Pakistan, and the attacks are fitter and deeper than ever before. He is also part of a batting line-up in transition, and has batted alongside veterans going through their worst patches. He often finds himself in crisis situations where there are no tired bowlers to take advantage of. Because he bats in the top six, these aren't usually nothing-to-lose situations either.