SPORTS

Pant Relishing Comeback In 'Whites'!

By REDIFF CRICKET
September 16, 2024 10:44 IST

IMAGE: Rishabh Pant during Team India's training session at the M A Chidambaram stadium in Chennai. Photograph: Rishabh Pant/Instagram

Rishabh Pant is back in the Indian Test squad after nearly two years following a serious car crash in December 2022.

The wicket-keeper-batter's comeback to cricket has been nothing sort of miraculous. He could barely walk around a year back but hours and hours of relentless rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy helped him make a remarkable comeback to cricket earlier this year in the IPL.

IMAGE: Rishabh Pant bats during the nets. Photograph: Rishabh Pant/Instagram

Pant himself had revealed that he feared for his life when his Mercedes caught fire after hitting a divider in the early hours of December 30, 2022. The accident left him with a ligament tear in his right knee and cuts on his forehead, making a cricket comeback seem almost impossible at the time.

Pant, 26, was also a part of India's T20 World Cup winning team in the USA and the West Indies earlier this year, where he excelled with both bat and ball.

He rightfully earned back his place in the Test team with a blistering half-century in the Duleep Trophy and is now all set to don the big gloves in the Bangladesh Test series in place of Dhruv Jurel, who did no wrong during the England series.

Before his accident, Pant was India's preferred wicket-keeper in the Test team. His record in the format is quite impressive with 2,271 runs in 33 Tests, averaging 43 at a strike rate of 73, with five centuries and 11 fifties despite batting lower down the order while taking 119 catches and 14 stumping dismissals.

IMAGE: Rishabh Pant with Axar Patel. Photograph: Rishabh Pant/Instagram

He had helped India create history in Australia in the Test series in 2021. Chasing 329 to win, on the final day of the final Test, Pant steered his team with a sensational knock of 89 on the final day as India became the first team to beat Australia at the Gabba in 32 years, as they claimed the series 2-1 -- their second successive series win Down Under.

 

'Whites,' he captioned the pictures of him training in Chennai on Instagram as he eagerly awaits his Test match return after a long time.

REDIFF CRICKET

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