In cricket some destinies are destined , Hardly anyone knew that the hero of the famous Gabba win and the swashbuckling middle order wicket keeper batter in Tests Rishabh Pant would meet the fate of destiny to halt his cricketing journey for a brief period of time. The Indian team who had the torrid time in ICC events in 2023 and by year end a horrified test match vs South Africa had surely remembered and missed Rishabh Pant.
As fate could have it on the morning of December 30 2022, Rishabh Pant on his way back home met with a fateful accident and had a lucky escape. However this accident indeed turned out to be fateful for the Indian Cricket Team over the next year 2023 as Indian selection committee was caught in dilemma to replace a player like caliber of Pant who with his pyrotechnics with the bat could swing the game anytime in team’s favour especially in red ball cricket.
Rishabh Pant through his flamboyance in the tour down under 2021-22 and the English tour months later had already made a mark in the mind of former cricketers and India seemed to have found an able hitter at No 6 who could now be compared to likes of Adam Gilchrist of Australia changing the facet of how test cricket could be played.
Former England skipper and player Naseer Hussain has hoped for the speedy recovery of Rishabh Pant and wants to see him on the field wielding the bat come 2024.
Nasser Hussain on Rishabh Pant’s accident and recovery
Former England captain Nasser Hussain is hopeful that Indian keeper-batter Rishabh Pant will be making a strong comeback in 2024, after his recovery from a car accident he was involved in last year. Hussain described Pant as a “box office” cricketer and expressed his hope that he can be the same player he was before his injury.
Pant (26) had a lucky escape after he was severely injured in a car accident that took place on the morning of December 30, 2022. The stumper’s car collided with a divider on the Delhi-Dehradun highway.
The keeper-batter has made impressive progress during the rehabilitation period. According to reports, he could return to cricket ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup in USA and the West Indies.
Sharing his thoughts on Pant’s horrific accident and his recovery, Hussain was quoted as saying by the ICC
“That was such a serious accident. The whole world held its breath and it has been a slow recovery. You follow on social media, on my phone and the initial first walking steps to then scenes in the gym and then scenes of him playing a bit of cricket, scenes of him with Ricky (Ponting). I travelled with Ricky in the summer in the Ashes, and Ricky was texting him ‘how’s the progress coming along’, and he is a box office cricketer,”
In Pant’s absence, David Warner captained Delhi Capitals (DC) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 edition. The former attended the mini-auction in Dubai earlier in December , but there are conflicting reports about his availability for IPL 2024.
They are lucky to have both of them- Nasser Hussain
With Pant out of action, India backed KL Rahul as their keeper-batter for the ODI World Cup and the latter delivered the goods, smashing 452 runs in the tournament at an average of 75.33. According to Hussain, India are lucky to have both Pant and Rahul.
“India have done well without him (Pant) as KL has come in and been brilliant in all formats. They’ll continue to be brilliant. They’re lucky to have both of them, but Rishabh Pant, before his injury, was box office, and hopefully after his injury, will be box office as well,” the former England captain commented.
Pant has so far played 33 Tests, 30 ODIs and 66 T20Is, scoring 2271, 865 and 987 runs respectively.
With Rishabh Pant on his way for speedy recovery, The Indian Cricket team and well wishers will only wish for this left hander swashbuckling batter to make his comeback in International circuit and churn lot of runs across format for India guiding team to victories in forthcoming years.