In a good news for Indian cricket fans, star wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant, who is under rehabilitation after suffering a horrific car crash in late December last year, will be seen playing a competitive cricket match very soon.
The 26-year-old Pant met with a horrific car crash in late December last year and suffered serious injuries. Since then, he has remained out of competitive cricket and working on his fitness at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.
Apart from having training sessions, Pant has also played in a couple of practice matches on a few occasions.
Meanwhile, former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who is the director of cricket at Delhi Capitals for whom the dashing wicketkeeper-batter plays in the IPL, has now provided a major fitness update on Rishabh’s comeback.
“He (Pant)’s good now. He will play in the IPL next season,” said Ganguly on the sidelines of a four-day camp organised by the franchise at the Jadavpur University Salt Lake campus ground in Kolkata.
According to reports, Pant arrived at the camp while sporting a white T-shirt and black shorts and had discussions with Sourav and Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting and others.
The report added that Pant will not practise with the bat or behind the stumps during the ongoing camp, which ends on Saturday. And, he is mainly there for team-related matters and discussions with Sourav and Ponting ahead of the IPL auction, which is scheduled for December 19 in Dubai.
“Rishabh won’t be practising here though. There’s still time for him to get down to practice. By January (2024), he’ll get even better,” Sourav said.
“We were talking about the team. He is the captain, so he put in his views regarding the upcoming auction. That’s the reason he has come here, to finalise certain aspects related to the team,” he added.
Pant’s last competitive game was the India-Bangladesh Test match last year in Mirpur. During his absence in this year’s IPL, the Capitals, led by David Warner, finished second from bottom.
