Rishabh Pant’s much-anticipated return to the ODI arena turned out to be an insipid affair, back to an ODI series after suffering for almost two years. Pant could only survive for 6 runs off 9 balls, if one includes a boundary, before giving his wicket away.The moment of his dismissal finally arrived on the second ball in the 10th over. Pant was stepping out, trying to be hit over the boundary.
However, he pulled out as the ball was released and ended in an awkward situation trying to defend it. In the end, it didn’t really work out, and midwicket was the victim of his decision, sending him back to the pavilion. Theekshana picked his first in this series with this wicket of Pant and got a big scalp on his debut.
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Since November 2022, this was the first game return by the team of Pant. The period of this time off the field was a long one, however, as it resulted from an accident that he was involved in seriously with a car. The fans and the players had great anticipation of seeing him back into the game, with hopes that he would manage having a good performance this time round.
However, India’s innings lay in tatters at the fall of his wicket. The side had just 96 runs on the board with already seven men back to the pavilion, none from the top order having made any significant contributions. Pant came into the side at the expense of KL Rahul, but the youngster could not do justice to his selection.
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Adding to his misery, Pant had a bad day at the back of the stumps. He let go of an absolute sitter of a stumping chance in the Sri Lankan innings, creating further agony for the Indians. His missed chance allowed the Sri Lankan batsmen to build more on their innings, creating a hard time for the Indian side.
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Eventually, this saw India lose the game by 110 runs after getting bundled out for a meager score of 138 runs in 27 overs, with them needing a miraculous recovery to chase down Sri Lanka’s total after suffering an early collapse. Pant’s emanating comeback, which was to be a watershed event, only accentuated how much more the struggling team continued to suffer.
