Pawan Kumar
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Rishabh Pant had major surgery on his knee after almost all of his ligaments were torn in a car crash on the Delhi-Dehradun highway on December 30 of last year while he was driving home. He is slowly but surely getting better. The wicketkeeper-batsman for India is still in a private hospital in Mumbai, but he should be released in the first week of February. Reports say that it could take him two months to start light training and four to six months to start strength training and full-fledged cricket practise. This means that Pant will definitely miss the Border-Gavaskar Trophy match against Australia and, most likely, the Indian Premier League.
In IPL 2023, he was supposed to be in charge of the Delhi Capitals. Even though the franchise hasn’t said anything official, it’s clear that only a miracle can make Pant lead DC this year. If that’s true, then who will be in charge of DC? Ricky Ponting, who played cricket for Australia and is now the head coach of the Delhi-based franchise, said it’s hard to find someone to replace someone like Pant.
“Those guys can’t be replaced,” Ponting told the ICC. “Players like that don’t grow on trees. We need a wicketkeeper-batsman to join the team as a replacement, and we are already looking for one.
Ponting, who gets along well with the aggressive left-handed batter, said that India will miss Pant a lot in the four-game series that starts on February 9.
“He’s probably one of the top six or seven Test batsmen in the world, right?” Ponting asked. “Pant is currently seventh in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s Test Batting Rankings, making him India’s best batsman,” Ponting added.
The last time India beat Australia in Australia, Pant was a very important part of the team.
“When he first started, we probably all thought he would be a better T20 and one-day batsman than a Test batsman, but that hasn’t been the case. His play in Tests has been amazing. Even the upcoming four-Test series against Australia, we know how he played against them in Australia the last time. He would have been excited for that series, and everyone else would have been excited to see him play.
