Indian wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant has been raising eyebrows with his recent training session as a prelude to the 2024 Duleep Trophy. After being laid off for over a year due to a near-fatal car accident in December 2022, Pant is all set to make his highly awaited comeback into the format of red-ball cricket.
The competition starts on September 5, and it is all eyes on whether he will manage to regain his form and impact the game as much as he used to. His last appearance in Test cricket was in 2022 against Bangladesh, something that feels like a lifetime ago from what he has gone through.
The road to cricket recovery for Rishabh Pant has been nothing short of miraculous. Battling serious injuries, he has been quite resilient and determined. Recently, on Instagram, he shared a video clip of himself batting in the nets, an indication that he hungers for the game.
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“I try not to have expectations ’cause it can tend to tear you apart. I try to work as hard as I possibly can, give every ounce of a hundred per cent & keep learning from it,” Rishabh Pant wrote, summing up his approach during these testing times.
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Rishabh Pant has built an enviable record in Test cricket: In 33 matches for India, he has garnered 2271 runs at a brilliant average of 43.67, not to mention five centuries. His contribution in India’s victory in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia made him one of the vital cogs in the wheels of Indian cricket history.
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The road ahead to find his feet in Test cricket will be no cakewalk for Pant. He finally returned to white-ball cricket at the 2024 T20 World Cup and subsequently in the IPL, but the recent ODI he played against Sri Lanka was not too inspiring. Further, promising youngsters like Dhruv Jurel and Ishan Kishan have been doing their thing in the longest format of the game, meaning Pant will once again have to fight for a spot in the team.
