Ricky Ponting has made the statement that Rishabh Pant is confident in his ability to play the full of this year’s Indian Premier League.
This is a piece of encouraging news for supporters of the Delhi Capitals and India. Pant was involved in a terrible vehicle accident on December 30, 2022, which has prevented him from participating in the game ever since. Over the course of the past several months, the wicketkeeper-batter has gradually resumed his light workout routines and has even been seen attending matches for India since then.
After being absent from the Indian Premier League (IPL) of the previous year, the One-Day International World Cup, and several important Test series, Pant was anticipated to make his comeback during the IPL of this year. Even though Ponting believed that Pant, who is 26 years old, is prepared to make a comeback, he did not yet have a firm decision regarding whether or not Pant should take the wicketkeeping gloves or be the captain.
“Rishabh is very confident that he’s going to be right to play. In what capacity we’re not quite sure yet. You would have seen all the social-media stuff, he’s up and about and running well. But in saying that we’re only six weeks away from the first game as well. So we’re not sure if we’ll get wicketkeeping out of him this year,” Ponting said.
“But I’ll guarantee if I asked him now he’ll say, ‘I’m playing every game, I’m keeping every game and I’m batting at No.4.’ That’s just what he’s like, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed,” he added.
Ponting has moderated his expectations and come to the conclusion that managing Pant for ten of the fourteen games would seem like a bonus for a team that missed his services tremendously the previous year. Pant is quite certain that he will play throughout the entire season.
“He’s such a dynamic player. He’s obviously our captain. We missed him incredibly last year. If you understand the journey he’s been on the last 12-13 months, it was a horrific incident. One that I know he feels very lucky to have even survived, let alone have the chance to play cricket again.”
“We’ll just keep our fingers crossed and hope that he can be out there and play. Even if it’s not all the games, if we can manage him through 10 of the 14 games or whatever that might be then whatever games you can get out of him will be a bonus,” Ponting said, and confirmed that David Warner will remain in charge if Pant isn’t ready to lead the team.
Ponting is optimistic about the upcoming season for the Delhi Capitals, despite the fact that the team finished in second place in the Indian Premier League 2023 and only won five of their fourteen games.
“With Harry Brook coming into the set-up as well, so Warner, [Mitch] Marsh, Harry Brook, we’ve got some really good overseas batters,” Ponting said. “Marsh and Warner will bat up the top somewhere and Harry Brook has been finishing off with England, so he’ll probably play a finishing role for us there.”
“[If] we can get [Anrich] Nortje and Jhye Richardson fit, and with the two spin options we’ve got with Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav we’ve got a really good squad that to be fair has probably underperformed the last couple of years, so we’ve got some work to do,” Ponting added.
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