Rishabh Pant, India’s wicketkeeper-batter, is expected to make his long-awaited return to competitive cricket during the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL).
According to Cricbuzz, the Delhi Capitals management believes Pant will head the franchise in the 17th season of the world’s greatest T20 tournament next year.
Pant’s return to play, however, will be contingent on permission from the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, where he is receiving rehabilitation. Furthermore, whether he gets to maintain wickets in the IPL or not will be decided by the BCCI.
The Capitals, on the other hand, will use him solely as a batter if he is unable to execute wicketkeeping duties.
“If he is not keeping, he will definitely be on the field and will lead the side,” a franchise official was quoted as saying in the report.
Pant has been sidelined since a car accident in December while driving from New Delhi to his birthplace of Roorkee.
After his Mercedes-AMG GLE43 Coupe crashed into a divider and burst into flames, the wicketkeeper-batter, who had become the first-choice wicketkeeper across forms since MS Dhoni’s retirement, had a miraculous escape.
He was transported to a hospital in Dehradun and then airlifted to Mumbai, where he underwent surgery on his right knee at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital under the care of Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala.
Pant sustained back and ankle injuries in the incident, as well as burns that required plastic surgery.
Pant, who has played 33 Tests, 30 ODIs, and 66 T20Is for India, was last seen on the team’s tour to Bangladesh in December.
While India lost the One-Day International series 1-2, they won the Test series 2-0, with Pant batting 93 in the second Test in Mirpur. Days later, in the early hours of December 30, he would be involved in an accident.
In Pant’s absence, seasoned Australian opener David Warner guided the Capitals to a second-place finish in the IPL 2023.
He was recently retained by the Capitals on the IPL Player Retention deadline of November 26th, albeit the IPL 2020 runners-up did not name a captain at the time.
